Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the pharma industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups providing antibody-drug conjugates (ADC).
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Pharma Startups providing Antibody-Drug Conjugates out of 43
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 43 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 startups providing antibody-drug conjugates that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 38 antibody-drug conjugates solutions, get in touch.
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Femtogenix engineers DNA-interactive Antibody-Drug Conjugates
ADCs maximize efficacy while minimizing toxicity. The developments in ADCs focus on the selectivity of antibodies, drug mechanism of action, drug-linking, drug-antibody ratio (DAR), and drug-releasing properties. However, some payload classes are hydrophobic, leading to problems with aggregation during conjugation. Thus, startups develop minimally hydrophobic ADCs to increase efficiency.
British startup Femtogenix designs DNA-interactive payloads. The structure of these payloads uses third-party conjugating technologies to ensure release only at the site of tumor cells. Their design allows for a novel mechanism of action and intraperitoneal (IP) space compared to existing DNA-interactive payloads. Thus, the payloads have minimal hydrophobicity and resistance to P-Glycoprotein pumps in tumor cells.
Araris Biotech designs Peptide Linkers
ADCs consist of several components that assist in the drug delivery mechanism. A class of cleavable linkers, peptide linkers, plays a critical role in ADC delivery. Their plasma stability and controlled payload release mechanism ensure the success of ADCs. These linkers accurately deliver and release the cytotoxic drug at the tumor site while also increasing water solubility. Startups develop peptide linkers to increase the efficacy of working while minimizing toxicity associated with the therapy.
Swiss startup Araris Biotech develops peptide linkers for ADCs. The linkers help in attaching payloads by different means, such as azide and sulfhydryl. Thus, the ADCs have favorable physicochemical properties that are also stable in serum. Additionally, they do not change the properties of the parent antibody and have high therapeutic potential.
Istari Oncology develops Antibody-Toxin Conjugates (ATC)
ATCs consist of immunotoxins that selectively bind and terminate cancerous cells at the site of tumor formation. The efficacy of the toxins needs to be high to ensure that low doses are sufficient to eliminate the tumor. Thus, startups develop novel immunotoxins that increase the overall efficiency of the ADC. For example, in patients with leukemia, a reduced immune response allows bacterial toxin PE-38 to terminate cancerous cells in three doses.
US-based startup Istari Oncology develops ATCs. The startup’s ATCs combine highly specific, monoclonal antibodies with the PE-38 toxin to maximize efficiency. The solution provides higher stability than chemical linkers because of its genetic linkage. The linkage also makes them more scalable and easier to manufacture. Further, the startup offers viral immunotherapy, PVSRIPO, based on the Sabin type-1 polio vaccine for cancer treatment.
McSAF provides Cysteines Rebridging Technology
ADCs are limited by a lack of functional working mechanisms that ensure high therapeutic potential. Modification of cysteines produces functional proteins for ADC working mechanisms. Cysteines also have high nucleophilicity, making them suitable for chemoselective protein modification. Startups develop cysteine-specific bioconjugation for greater efficiency in ADC delivery and working. They explore reagents with improved reactivity and specificity as well as stability and biocompatibility.
French startup McSAF offers cysteine rebridging platforms. The startup’s McSAF Inside platform produces three typologies of ADCs- DAR 4, DAR 2, and DAR 1. The resulting ADCs have high homogeneity and are also scalable. Moreover, the design incorporates these ADCs to be site-specific and utilize native proteins. For example, the McSAF 01 and McSAF 03- ADCITMER treat solid tumors while McSAF 02 treats liquid tumors.
ZIP SOLUTIONS offers Site-Specific Conjugation
One of the issues involved with the utilization of ADCs is a sub-optimal therapeutic potential. There is a limitation in the production of ADCs due to heterogeneous mixture yields of up to 8 drug species per antibody molecule. Thus, startups develop site-specific drug conjugation solutions to increase the therapeutic potential and production of ADCs. Site-specific conjugation further eliminates heterogeneity and improves conjugate stability.
Spanish startup ZIP SOLUTIONS engineers site-specific antibody-drug conjugation. The startup’s technology, Splittera, allows to site-specifically modify antibodies with toxins, efficiently rendering homogeneous products cost-effectively. It covalently incorporates payloads to the C-terminus of the heavy and light chains of an antibody, yielding DAR 2 or DAR 4. Additionally, it does not affect the affinity of the antibody for the antigen and applies to any antibody format.
Discover more Pharma Startups
Pharma startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on anti-drug and anti-toxin conjugates, cysteine rebridging, and site-specific conjugation. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the pharma industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more pharma technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free Pharma Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
