Dow and Avidex Agree to Develop Biotargeted Radiopharmaceuticals based on mTCR Technology
Avidex Limited and The Dow Chemical Company will collaborate to create biotargeted radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment by applying Dow's technology to Avidex's monoclonal T cell receptors (mTCRs), the companies announced.
Under the agreement, proprietary chelation technology and other capabilities, provided through ChelaMed SM radiopharmaceutical services from Dow, will be used to attach a therapeutic radioisotope to a targeted mTCR. The first effort will focus on Avidex's mTCR product, EsoDexTM to further enhance the targeted radiopharmaceutical for treatment of lung and bladder cancer. EsoDex targets the NY-ESO antigen, a very specific marker of cancer cells.
"We are excited about using Dow's capabilities in chelation, conjugation, process and radiochemistry to enable Avidex to develop novel radiopharmaceuticals," said Dow's Mark Cassidy, PhD, Director, Pharmaceutical Technologies. "Biotargeted radiopharmaceuticals can potentially increase therapeutic options, raise effectiveness and reduce side effects to improve quality of life for patients with cancer and other diseases."
Commenting on the agreement, Neill Moray MacKenzie, Avidex's Chief Business Officer, said: "We are extremely pleased to be working with this very well respected and established company. We believe that Dow's technology is a perfect complement to Avidex's emerging mTCRs. This agreement marks a very significant step in the development of our mTCR products as cancer targeting agents."
Although NY-ESO is a very specific tumour associated antigen, it is an internal antigen, and therefore would not be detected by a therapeutic monoclonal antibody. EsoDex, from Avidex, however, is designed to specifically to bind the fragments of the NY-ESO antigen that are presented on the surface of tumour cells by HLA class I molecules. Using the Dow chelator to attach a radionuclide (such as yttrium-90 or lutetium-177) as a payload to the NY-ESO-specific mTCR will enable targeted delivery of such cytotoxic agents. EsoDex is indicated for the treatment of cancers, such as lung and bladder cancers, that express the NY-ESO cancer-specific antigen. The NY-ESO cancer-specific antigen was originally discovered by the Ludwig Institute, New York.
The agreement provides for additional future application of technologies and capabilities from ChelaMed radiopharmaceutical services to other cancer-specific mTCRs being developed by Avidex.
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