Twist Bioscience and Kyowa Kirin Partner for GPCR Antibody Discovery

Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced that it signed a partnership agreement with Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceutical Research, Inc., a subsidiary of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Kirin, TSE: 4151), a global specialty pharmaceutical company, to discover novel antibodies for therapeutic use against an undisclosed G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) target molecule.

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“We are committed to using novel, differentiated technologies to develop best-in-class therapeutics while expediting the discovery process,” said Andrew McKnight, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceutical Research, Inc. “We look forward to a productive and exciting partnership with Twist Bio that will allow us to discover optimized antibody therapeutics from their diverse libraries at a rapid pace.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Twist Biopharma, a division of Twist Bioscience, will leverage its unique “Library of Libraries” for biologics discovery and its proprietary discovery capabilities to discover novel GPCR target specific antibodies for Kyowa Kirin. Twist identifies proprietary antibodies that are precisely designed to match sequences that occur in the human immune system due to its unique ability to manufacture DNA at scale. This precise and rational approach to antibody library creation, combined with advanced bioinformatics expertise and automation of the early discovery processes, expedites antibody discovery - decreasing risk, increasing speed, and lowering the failure rate for antibody therapeutic development. Using this approach, Twist has also created target-class focused libraries against difficult to drug target classes, such as GPCRs; these libraries will be put to use in the collaboration. Twist received an upfront payment upon signing and Kyowa Kirin retains an option to obtain development and commercial rights to any antibodies resulting from the agreement.

“Kyowa Kirin specializes in leveraging antibody engineering to develop innovative, life-changing medicines. That expertise complements Twist’s unique approach to efficient and robust antibody discovery and optimization,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience.

About Kyowa Kirin

Kyowa Kirin strives to create and deliver novel medicines with life-changing value. As a Japan-based Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Company, we apply cutting-edge science including an expertise in antibody research and engineering, to address the needs of patients and society across multiple therapeutic areas including Nephrology, Oncology, Immunology/Allergy and Neurology. Across our four regions – Japan, Asia Pacific, North America and EMEA/International – we focus on our purpose, to make people smile, and are united by our shared values of commitment to life, teamwork/Wa, innovation, and integrity. You can learn more about Kyowa Kirin North America at: https://kkna.kyowakirin.com.

About Twist Bioscience Corporation

Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.

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Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein, including without limitation, the ability of the partnership between Twist and Kyowa Kirin to successfully discover optimized antibody therapeutics from libraries designed specifically with sequences that occur naturally in the human body to prevent immunogenicity and improve pharmacokinetic properties and for such partnership to expedite antibody discovery, decrease risk, increase speed and lower the failure rate for antibody therapeutic development, are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause Twist Bioscience’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risks and uncertainties of the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of a significant customer; risks of third party claims alleging infringement of patents and proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate Twist Bioscience’s patents or proprietary rights; and the risk that Twist Bioscience’s proprietary rights may be insufficient to protect its technologies. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Twist Bioscience’s business in general, see Twist Bioscience’s risk factors set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Quarterly Report Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 9, 2021 and subsequent filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Twist Bioscience specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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