BerGenBio ASA announced that the first patient has been dosed in a phase I clinical trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and anti-tumour efficacy of ADCT-601, an AXL-targeting antibody drug conjugate (ADC), in patients with advanced solid tumours. ADCT-601 is composed of a humanised monoclonal antibody against human AXL (BGB601) discovered by BerGenBio, conjugated to a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer toxin. BGB601 was out-licensed for ADC development to ADC Therapeutics SA (ADCT). In preclinical studies, ADCT-601 has demonstrated potent and specific anti-tumour activity in multiple in vivo models and was stable and well tolerated, as reported by ADCT at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) annual congress in 2018.