Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are one of the most actively pursued therapeutic classes in oncology due to their high specificity and potency. The conjugates have two components: an antibody allowing the delivery of drug to tumors in a highly targeted manner, and a potent cytotoxic agent to directly kill tumor cells.
Despite the high degree of specificity and potency for ADCs, there are continued challenges that limit their success:
SOTIO has two ongoing partnerships for the development of its ADC pipeline. It is developing two ADCs in partnership with NBE-Therapeutics (NBE) based on NBE’s proprietary site-specific sortase mediated antibody coupling (SMAC) conjugation platform. These ADCs utilize an anthracycline toxin called PNU, a highly potent cytotoxic agent, that leads to immunogenic cell death and elicits a long-lasting anti-tumor immune response.
The therapeutics have been designed to address the limitations of current ADCs:
Additionally, SOTIO and LegoChem Biosciences (LCB) entered into a multi-target exclusive collaboration and license agreement under which SOTIO obtained the rights to deploy LCB’s ADC conjugation technology, ConjuAll™, and potent linker-payload platform for up to five therapeutic programs.