Pacylex and Heidelberg Pharma Present Promising Zelenirstat ADC Data at World ADC Conference
TL;DR
Pacylex and Heidelberg Pharma's collaboration demonstrates zelenirstat's potential as a novel ADC payload, offering a competitive edge in cancer treatment with significantly enhanced potency.
Zelenirstat functions as an NMT inhibitor payload in ADCs, showing 20 to 1000-fold increased potency against cancer cell lines through targeted delivery mechanisms.
This innovative cancer therapy partnership advances targeted treatment options, potentially improving survival outcomes and quality of life for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers.
Pacylex transforms their oral cancer drug into powerful ADC payloads, achieving remarkable potency increases by combining novel mechanisms with cutting-edge antibody technology.
Pacylex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Heidelberg Pharma AG are jointly presenting positive data on zelenirstat antibody drug conjugates at the 16th Annual World ADC conference in San Diego. The collaboration demonstrates zelenirstat's potential as a novel payload in ADCs targeting breast and prostate cancer cell lines, with results showing significantly enhanced potency compared to oral zelenirstat administration.
The research addresses a critical need in cancer therapeutics, as only a limited number of ADC payloads have entered clinical practice. Zelenirstat, a first-in-class N-myristoyltransferase inhibitor currently in clinical development for hematologic cancers, showed remarkable performance when deployed as an ADC payload. Studies revealed that zelenirstat ADCs demonstrated 20-fold to more than 1,000-fold higher potency against cancer cell lines compared to zelenirstat alone.
Dr. Michael Weickert, CEO of Pacylex, emphasized the significance of these findings, stating that zelenirstat not only shows activity as an oral hematologic cancer drug but also achieves markedly improved potency against solid tumor cells when used as an ADC payload. The company plans to aggressively explore zelenirstat and other Pacylex molecules as targeted ADC payloads, leveraging their novel mechanism of action and established clinical safety profile.
The presented data includes results from multiple breast and prostate cancer cell lines using different ADC targeting molecules and linkers. Zelenirstat has already demonstrated an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in Phase 1 studies involving patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma and refractory solid tumors, with pharmacokinetics consistent with once-daily oral dosing and early signs of efficacy. Additional information about Pacylex's research and development programs can be found at https://www.pacylex.com.
Heidelberg Pharma brings specialized ADC technology to the collaboration, including their proprietary ATAC technology that utilizes Amanitin from the green death cap mushroom as a novel therapeutic modality in cancer treatment. The company's expertise in developing innovative ADCs complements Pacylex's leadership in NMT inhibitor development. More details about Heidelberg Pharma's technology platform are available at https://www.heidelberg-pharma.com.
The implications of this research extend beyond the immediate findings, as successful development of new ADC payloads could expand treatment options for solid tumors that have proven resistant to conventional therapies. The collaboration represents an important step in addressing the limited payload options currently available for ADC development, potentially leading to more effective targeted cancer treatments with improved safety profiles.
Curated from Reportable