Merck & Co., Inc.

Antibody R&D teams can configure any format in minutes and register up to 1,000 antibodies in a single run SAN FRANCISCO and BOSTON, May 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Benchling announced Benchling Biologics, an end-to-end platform for antibody R&D, today at the PEGS Boston Summit. Scientists can configure any antibody format without code, register proteins of any complexity, and capture metadata at the domain level. The data model is antibody-aware: proteins, chains, and domains are registered as linked components, with experimental context attached as it's generated. By the time a candidate reaches selection, it carries the full design-build-test-learn (DBTL) record behind it. Continue Reading Benchling Biologics is the end-to-end platform for antibody R&D, giving teams the AI-ready data foundation they need to move faster. "Most R&D systems can't represent the antibody formats teams are actually working with," said Derek Halliday, Head of Product at Benchling. "Benchling Biologics fixes that. Scientists configure new formats in minutes instead of waiting weeks for engineering, and every antibody registered comes back fully annotated and validated." Antibody R&D has shifted from discovery to design, from finding molecules that bind to engineering molecules that perform. Bispecifics, multispecifics, and novel formats are now standard. AI is enabling structure prediction, property optimization, and de novo design from sequence. Most R&D systems weren't built for this. They lack native support for emerging formats and a consistent way to structure the resulting data, leaving sequence and assay data fragmented and difficult to use for analysis or modeling at scale. Benchling Biologics addresses this across each stage of the workflow: Discovery: Process sequencing data at scale PipeBio by Benchling provides a no-code interface for antibody screening, supporting IgGs, sdAbs, scFvs, Fabs, bispecifics, TCRs, and peptides. Sequencing runs from discovery campaigns or in silico pipelines can return millions of sequences. Automating sequence processing, repertoire analytics, and early liability identification enables scientists to cluster candidates, assess developability, flag liabilities, and select hits without relying on dedicated bioinformatics support. Teams can pass selected hits directly into Benchling for registration while maintaining full traceability. Design: Configure any format, same day Scientists are evolving antibody formats faster than most systems can accommodate and existing tools aren't keeping up. Adding a new format requires custom work and weeks of waiting. Now in Benchling Biologics, scientists can define new formats in minutes from modular building blocks and begin registering proteins of those formats immediately, condensing weeks of waiting to days. During registration, Benchling automatically characterizes and validates each entity, including CDR/FR regions, germline gene identification, liability detection, and format-aware validation. The system registers DNA sequences, amino acid sequences, chains, and domains as reusable components linked together. It also generates interactive, color-coded protein glyphs, with domains assembled hierarchically into chains, making complex multispecific formats easier to interpret. The result is a step change in scientist time and data quality. Registering 2,000 bispecifics, a job that takes days in legacy systems, takes under an hour to set up and less than a day to run in Benchling. And every record comes back fully annotated, validated, and consistently structured, instead of the unstructured, unvalidated entries scientists are used to cleaning up after the fact. Computational teams get records they can actually use. Build and Test: From bench to result, in one environment Benchling Biologics gives teams a single, connected view of every antibody. Scientists use Benchling to capture how they produce proteins from start to finish, whether that is cloning, expression, or purification, so experimental context stays attached to the molecules that generated it. For teams running on automated workcells, Benchling integrates directly with laboratory automation systems, including HighRes, passing experimental parameters automatically and returning analyzed results to the original experiment entry. If any of this work is outsourced, scientists can order biological materials and assay services without leaving their workflow with Direct ordering. Ordering is available with Twist Bioscience for gene synthesis and antibody expression, Adaptyv for protein engineering and characterization services, and Ginkgo Bioworks for antibody developability screening. Each result returns tied to the originating design, making handoffs easy and speeding up validation cycles. Learn: Closing the loop As experiments complete, structured assay data is immediately available and contextualized alongside antibodies. Sequences, samples, and results stay linked from first design through final candidate selection, giving discovery, engineering, and downstream development teams a shared, traceable record. Benchling AI can summarize learnings across experiments and help teams explore options for the next design cycle. Computational teams can access external sequence and structural datasets through Benchling's MCP-based AI Connectors to feed directly into antibody design models, or integrate data with PipeBio to analyze sequence and assay data together. Benchling Biologics is available today. See it in action. Join us on June 11 for a live walkthrough of Benchling Biologics: configuring formats, registering antibodies at scale, and building the AI-ready data foundation antibody R&D teams need. Register for the webinar. About Benchling Benchling is the AI platform for biotech R&D, unifying scientific data and automating workflows to accelerate discovery and development. Trusted by more than 1,300 companies worldwide, from pioneering startups to global leaders like Merck, Moderna, and Sanofi, Benchling gives scientists a single place to capture, connect, and act on data across the entire R&D lifecycle. With Benchling AI, agents and models work directly inside scientific workflows, grounded in structured data. The result is faster teams, better molecules, and breakthroughs that reach the world sooner. SOURCE Benchling 21% more press release views with Request a Demo

Daiichi Sankyo on Monday outlined ambitions to generate annual sales from its cancer drugs of more than JPY 2.3 trillion ($14.6 billion) by 2030 and become a global top five oncology company by 2035. The targets form part of a new five-year plan unveiled by Daiichi alongside its delayed financial results for fiscal year 2025.The company said that its oncology portfolio — led by the antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) Enhertu and Datroway — pulled in JPY 608.8 billion ($3.9 billion) in fiscal year 2025, representing growth of 31.3%. Meanwhile, overall sales rose 12.6% to JPY 2.1 trillion ($13.4 billion), which is targeted to grow to more than JPY 3 trillion ($19.1 billion) in 2030. Daiichi hopes to continue this strong performance through the launch of 20 new indications across five medicines by 2030, as it aims to "maximise the value" of its ADC portfolio and broader oncology pipeline. The company noted that it expects "five practice-changing launches" across its ADC portfolio this year, including four new breast cancer indications for Enhertu and Datroway, as well as a first-ever launch in small-cell lung cancer for ifinatamab deruxtecan."We plan to expand our leadership into lung cancer where there are more than 10 new indication launches planned for this tumour type across our portfolio over the next five years," said Ken Keller, global head of Daiichi's oncology business.Earlier ambitions for Daiichi's ADC assets — particularly the Merck & Co.-partnered patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd) — have recently come back to haunt the Japanese drugmaker, leading to compensation of over $480 million to contract manufacturing organisations amid a glut of excess manufacturing capacity.Having now adjusted its manufacturing needs, Daiichi is also advancing research behind new ADCs with novel cytotoxic and immunological payloads."We aim to further accelerate the speed of development of our pipeline assets through increasing the efficiency of clinical development processes, including leveraging the latest digital and artificial intelligence tools as well as enhancing our biomarker capabilities for better patient selection strategies," explained John Tsai, global R&D head.Daiichi indicated that it will employ "a breakthrough generating technology (BGT) approach, a platform-based drug discovery model, designed to deliver innovative medicines to patients faster and with a higher probability of success." Using this, by 2030, the company aims to identify additional BGTs, which may consist of multi-specific antibodies, targeted protein degradation and siRNA.

Inhibrx on Monday revealed mid-stage data showing that patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) responded better to a pairing of its INBRX-106 with Merck & Co.'s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) versus the anti–PD-1 mAb alone, supporting its argument that adding OX40 agonism on top of a checkpoint inhibitor can boost efficacy.The early results, from the Phase II portion of the HexAgon study, come a few weeks after rumours emerged that Merck was interested in buying INBRX-106, along with ozekibart (INBRX-109), Inhibrx's tetravalent agonist that targets human death receptor 5 (DR5) to induce tumour-selective programmed cell death. The pharma was reportedly ready to spend $8 billion to acquire INBRX-106, given its potential synergy with Keytruda. At the time, Reuters said the deal talks were fueled by data from HexAgon showing that the duo achieved an objective response rate (ORR) of 45%, compared to 30% for Keytruda alone. Now, with the lid off the preliminary data — based on 53 patients with treatment-naïve, PD-L1-positive, metastatic or unresectable recurrent HNSCC — it appears the rumours weren't too far off. Inhibrx reported a confirmed ORR of 44% for the combination arm versus 21.4% for Keytrudamonotherapy, representing a 22.6% absolute increase in confirmed responses. In addition, there were three complete responses among those given INBRX-106 plus Keytruda and none in the comparator arm. Pharmacodynamic data also pointed toward an immune system benefit from the hexavalent OX40 agonist. Patients receiving both INBRX-106 and Keytruda saw up to a 15-fold increase in peripheral CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell proliferation, compared with a 2.5-fold increase for the PD-1 inhibitor alone. "These data, coupled with the clear evidence of T-cell expansion and superior depth of response, give us confidence that INBRX-106 could be the first costimulatory agent to fundamentally shift the efficacy ceiling of immunotherapy," CEO Mark Lappe said in a company release. According to Inhibrx, the duo's safety profile was "generally manageable," with the most common treatment-related adverse events being rash, diarrhoea, fatigue and infusion-related reactions.Future plansWith the response data in-hand, the biotech next expects progression-free survival results to read out in the fourth quarter. The Phase III portion of HexAgon is slated to start in the third quarter. Outside of HNSCC, Inhibrx is planning to study INBRX-106 in perioperative non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients later this quarter, with additional trials in front-line metastatic NSCLC expected to launch in 2027. The drugmaker is also exploring combinations of the hexavalent OX40 agonist with vaccines, T-cell engagers and CAR-T cell therapies.