Academics Join Industry in Developing "Magic Bullet” Anti-Cancer Drug

The concept of a "magic bullet” drug has come of age with the development of a cancer cell-specific monoclonal antibody linked to a highly toxic anti-cancer drug that only becomes active after it has been taken up by the target cell.

DS-6, the specific antibody that guides the poison to the cancer cell, was developed at East Carolina University (Greenville, NC, USA). ImmunoGen, Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA) will use their proprietary Tumor-Activated Prodrug, or TAP, technology to convert the antibody into a potent anti-cancer drug. The compound will then be transferred to Sanofi-Aventis (Bridgewater, NJ, USA) who will take it into clinical trials.

"This has been an amazing education for me and personally very rewarding to get a ringside seat in seeing the complex process of drug discovery and development take place. It has also demonstrated how well academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies can work together in this process,” said Dr. Anne Kellogg, professor of pathology at East Carolina University. "We cannot give such a potent chemotherapy agent on its own because it would be too toxic, but if we can link it to an antibody, it goes inside the tumor cell and is released inside the tumor cell, which is really an amazing feat. You may be able to convert cancer to a very chronic disease you can treat if we can provide oncologists with a wider array of treatment options.”


Related Links:
East Carolina University
ImmunoGen
Sanofi-Aventis