By Seema Kumar
Antibody drug conjugates aim to provide targeted therapies by bringing together the large- and small-molecule drugs for the targeted therapies. Although ADCs have had a promising role in oncology over the last four decades, last few years have seen a significant rise in the number of approved ADC products. This “renaissance” of ADCs is connected with a better understanding of the cancer cell response to treatment and technological advancement in antibody engineering, bioconjugation methodologies, and cytotoxic small-molecule drugs. Dr. Beata Sweryda-Krawiec will share her perspectives on new trends and approaches for ADC based targeted therapies. She will also provide an overview of the innovative ADC platform from ImmunoGen, a pioneering organization in the ADC technology. She will also talk about the journey of ELAHERE, which recently received FDA accelerated approval for the treatment of folate receptor alpha (FRα) positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Targeted protein degraders (TPDs) or proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) molecules have been in research development for over 20 years. The recent transition of this newer therapeutic modality from academia to the clinic has generated a lot of excitement and momentum in this field. The ability of TPDs to recruit the cell's ubiquitin-proteosome system to degrade proteins of interest that were formerly identified as "undruggable" targets has highlighted the therapeutic potential of this modality. Undruggable targets include transcription factors, protein targets with mutations or shallow binding pockets, or any target having poor affinity or access by traditional small molecules. Mr. Steven W. Louie will provide a brief overview and introduction on the mechanism of action of heterobifunctional protein degraders. He will also talk about the preclinical in vitro and in vivo ADME challenges in development of these molecules and potential strategies to overcome these challenges.
The final presentation in this session will focus upon virus-like particles (VLP), containing an innate immune response agonist. Jenny Valentine, Ph.D., will provide and discuss the bioanalytical challenges and mitigation strategies for VLP drug development.