Cellectar Biosciences, Inc., an oncology-focused, clinical stage biotechnology company, announces the initiation of a collaboration with Avicenna Oncology GmbH, a leading precision medicine company based in Basel, Switzerland.
The collaboration will focus on the development of new phospholipid drug conjugates (PDCs) combining Cellectar's patented phospholipid ether delivery platform with Avicenna's novel cytotoxic payloads (potent anti-cancer small molecules).
"We believe the combination of our targeted PDC delivery with Avicenna's proprietary payloads has tremendous potential for the development of selective therapeutics for patients suffering with cancer," said Jim Caruso, president and CEO of Cellectar Biosciences. "This collaboration further validates the utility of our PDC delivery platform to provide targeted treatment of various resistant cancers, expands and accelerates our conjugate program research and potentially increases our novel, small molecule PDC pipeline."
Under the terms of the research collaboration, Avicenna will provide their novel payloads to Cellectar, which will leverage its expertise in chemical conjugation to link the molecules to its phospholipid ether (PDC platform). Cellectar will oversee the in vitro and in vivo testing of these molecules alongside an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) with the same payload. Both companies will have the option to advance the development of any of the newly conjugated molecules (PDCs). Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed.
"There remains a significant unmet medical need for providing patients with new generations of targeted treatments with improved therapeutic index. Combining Cellectar's PDC platform with our payloads is a very promising approach that could potentially overcome some of the disadvantages presently seen with ADCs," said Zaki Sellam, MSc, MBA, founder and CEO of Avicenna Oncology. "In line with our common vision, we are very excited to combine our collective expertise to potentially provide new treatment options for patients"
Cellectar's product candidates are built upon its patented cancer cell-targeting delivery and retention platform of optimized phospholipid ether-drug conjugates (PDCs). The company deliberately designed its phospholipid ether (PLE) carrier platform to be coupled with a variety of payloads to facilitate both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The basis for selective tumor targeting of our PDC compounds lies in the differences between the plasma membranes of cancer cells compared to those of normal cells. Cancer cell membranes are highly enriched in lipid rafts, which are glycolipoprotein microdomains of the plasma membrane of cells that contain high concentrations of cholesterol and sphingolipids, and serve to organize cell surface and intracellular signaling molecules. PDCs have been tested in more than 80 different xenograft models of cancer.
Cellectar Biosciences is developing phospholipid drug conjugates (PDCs) designed to provide cancer targeted delivery of diverse oncologic payloads to a broad range of cancers and cancer stem cells.
Based in Basel, Switzerland, Avicenna Oncology was founded with the purpose of combining precision medicine with drug conjugates to treat resistant cancers.
Cellectar biosciences, avicenna oncology collaborate, develop new phospholipid drug conjugates, `solid tumors
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