Private equity player Celtic bankrolls new Swiss antibody-drug conjugate company

Celtic Therapeutics Management, a global private equity firm focused on novel therapeutic product candidates, is leveraging the power of a technology platform owned by portfolio company Spirogen to create a new company focused on antibody drug conjugate (ADC) products. Alongside other Spirogen shareholders, Celtic Therapeutics is earmarking up to $50million for Lausanne, Switzerland-based ADC Therapeutics to develop a pipeline of 10 proprietary antibody drug conjugate oncology development programmes, targeting multiple major cancers, including prostate, renal, breast, lung and blood cancers.

Antibody drug conjugates are emerging as one of the hottest areas in oncology, as they combine the specificity of antibodies with cytotoxic warheads