PhotoBiotics' CSO hosts Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) event at Berlin Novel Protein Therapeutics Conference
London, 27 September 2011:
Dr Mahendra Deonarain, Reader in Antibody Technology at
Imperial College London and PhotoBiotics' Chief Scientific Officer will host an evening discussion
seminar at Informa's 7th Annual R&D of Novel Protein Therapeutics Conference1. Dr
Deonarain, an expert in recombinant antibody fusion proteins and conjugates will be reviewing
the re-emerging and promising field of ADCs and looking ahead to the next generation of ADC
technology, including that of PhotoBiotics' OptiLink platform2.
When used as cancer therapeutic agents, unmodified monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) extend
survival by only 5-6 months, and drug resistance develops against many mAbs because of
mutations in cell-signalling pathways. Although conventional anti-neoplastic drugs such as
doxorubicin, daunomycin, vinca-alkaloids and taxanes do kill cancer cells, they do so with limited
selectivity and high toxicity to normal cells, yielding only marginal therapeutic indices. On the
other hand, ADCs offer the selectivity of mAbs combined with the potency of anticancer drugs.
ADCs have been around for over 30 years, but early clinical trials in the 80s and 90s met with
failure due to side-effects, limited efficacy and quality control issues. New technologies have led
to more specific human antibodies, more efficient linking technologies and a wider range of potent
drugs tailored to particular cancers. The first of these new generation ADCs has just been
approved for Hodgkin's lymphoma, and many more are in the pipeline3. Pharmaceutical
companies are taking a real interest in this area again, leading to licensing opportunities for
biotechnology companies specialising in small molecule drugs and antibody-drug conjugation
technologies.
"It's an exciting time to be working in the area of ADCs", says Dr Deonarain, "...there's real
innovation happening and a lot of promising new technologies are emerging. We're going to see
dozens of new ADCs come through clinical development and ones based on antibody fragments
rather than whole mAbs could tackle difficult solid tumours where penetration of the tumour is a
real issue".
Notes for Editors:
1. 7th Annual R & D of Novel Protein Therapeutics, 27 - 28 September 2011, Maritim proArte Hotel, Berlin, Germany.
2. For more information on PhotoBiotics' technology, please contact: Dr Mahendra Deonarain,
PhotoBiotics Ltd, Dept of Life Sciences, Biochemistry Building, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road,
London SW7 2AZ., UK. Email: m.deonarain@imperial.ac.uk.
Tel: +44 (0)2075945318. Mob: +44
(0)7711580914.
3. Pharma interest surges in antibody drug conjugates, Sarah Webb, Nature Biotechnology, April 2011. http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v29/n4/full/nbt0411-297.html
About PhotoBiotics
PhotoBiotics Ltd is a multidisciplinary company spun out from Imperial College London to explore ways of targeting drugs directly to tumours, thus enhancing the efficacy of cancer treatment while also reducing unwelcome side-effects. The Company has developed a unique and simple antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology platform, denoted OptiLink, which enables the multiple attachment of drugs to antibody fragments. Counter-intuitively, OptiLink allows far higher drug loadings on antibody fragments than normally achieved with whole monoclonal antibodies. The PhotoBiotics' R&D team has already succeeded in its initial objective of targeting photosensitiser-based drugs to tumours, generating compelling efficacy data in various orthotopic and xenograft models, and has a product ready to enter preclinical toxicology / clinical development. The Company is now exemplifying how OptiLink has utility across a wide range of other ADC applications, including the targeted delivery of conventional cytotoxic drugs and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) contrast agents.
Press Releases
- PhotoBiotics' COO presents at major Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) conference in Barcelona
Date : 09 November 2011 - PhotoBiotics presents OptiLinkTM Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform at World ADC Summit in San Francisco
Date : 25 October 2011 - PhotoBiotics Raises Further Funding for Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs)
Date : 11 October 2011 - PhotoBiotics' CSO hosts Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) event at Berlin Novel Protein Therapeutics Conference
Date : 27 September 2011 - A Conjugation Platform for the Targeted Delivery of Anticancer Agents
Date : 01 September 2011 - OptiLink ADC Technology Features at the 10th Annual Congress on Recombinant Antibodies
Date : 15 May 2011 - PhotoBiotics Announces Collaboration with Major Pharma Company
Date : 7 December 2010 - PhotoBiotics’ approach to Targeted Magnetic Resonance Imaging receives award from the National Institute for Health Research
Date : 6 September 2010 - Location! Location! Location! - PhotoBiotics' Key to Successful PDT
Date : 31 July 2010 - US patent granted to PhotoBiotics for new targeted cancer therapy
Date : 1 April 2010 - Targeted Photodynamic Therapy in Corfu and Wroclaw 2009
Date : 22 June 2009 - American Chemical Society Hosts Targeted Photodynamic Therapy at Salt Lake City
Date : 10 April 2009 - Patent for targeted photodynamic therapy (t-PDT) gets green light Down Under
Date : 7 October 2008 - Targeted Photodynamic Therapy (t-PDT) to light up Brixen / Bressanone Symposium
Date : 18 September 2008 - Novel Targeted Cancer Therapy on show at Dubrovnik
Date : 24 March 2008 - New targeted anti-cancer therapy lights up investors
Date : 29 January 2008 - Light-activated anti-cancer drugs on target
Date : 29 November 2007