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Download the Corporate Fact Sheet
The Future of Drug Targeting and Predictive Medicine
The Opportunity for Endocyte
Endocyte is working to improve the diagnostic and treatment options for many types of cancer and inflammatory disease using a new proprietary drug guidance system (DGS). Endocyte DGS technology is designed to target a wide variety of drugs to diseased cells while avoiding healthy cells. Endocyte’s advanced DGS technology combines drugs with ligands that efficiently bind to receptors overexpressed on diseased cells. By targeting cell-surface receptors, Endocyte’s DGS delivers potent anti-cancer agents directly to cancer cells while avoiding delivery to healthy cells.
The company’s lead compound, EC145, is a conjugate of a powerful anti-cancer agent and a folate-targeting ligand. Folate is required for cellular division, and folate receptors are overexpressed on the rapidly dividing tumors associated with ovarian, renal, breast, colorectal, endometrial, non-small cell lung cancers and many other types of cancer. This technology represents both a potentially significant advance in patient care and a major commercial opportunity.
A New Approach to Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
The Endocyte DGS technology enhances the safety profile of drugs and has the potential to improve the treatment of cancer and other diseases in three ways:
- Treat patients with super-potent drugs: By targeting drugs more specifically to diseased cells, we can treat patients with more potent drugs while reducing toxicities.
- Create new drug combinations: By reducing toxicity, DGS also makes it possible to create combinations involving multiple super-potent drugs for maximum efficacy.
- Allow more frequent dosing: With an improved side-effect profile, DGS
drugs can be administered more frequently to maintain constant pressure on
tumors and other diseased cells.
An Essential Focus on Predictive Medicine
At Endocyte, developing more effective drugs is only part of the solution. We are also developing molecular diagnostic imaging agents that will identify patients who are most likely to respond to DGS therapy. Our diagnostic agents identify tumors or other diseased cells that over-express the specific receptors targeted by our DGS technology.
The Advantage of Small Molecules
Endocyte’s DGS technology platform has another significant potential advantage over other drugs. Many drugs are based on large molecules, such as antibodies, which are unable to effectively penetrate dense tumors. Drugs developed using Endocyte’s DGS technology are 300 times smaller than typical antibodies, giving them a superior ability to penetrate tumors. In animal studies, drugs based on small molecules showed ten times more uptake in solid tumors compared to larger molecule drugs.
History
Endocyte's technology and therapeutic focus are derived from groundbreaking research in the mid-1980s by Philip Low, PhD, a biochemist at Purdue University, who discovered a previously unknown pathway used by vitamins to enter plant cells. Extending this discovery to animal cells, Dr. Low, together with fellow Purdue biochemist Chris Leamon, PhD, (now VP of research at Endocyte) explored opportunities to combine drugs with vitamins. In this strategy, the vitamin would “carry” an attached drug directly to targeted cells and then into the targeted cell's interior using a normal pathway for vitamin uptake. Recognizing the potential to advance the promising applications of receptor-targeted therapeutics, Dr. Low, chief science officer, joined with Ron Ellis, CEO, and investors to found Endocyte.
Employees: 56
Locations
Corporate Offices
Purdue Research Park
3000 Kent Avenue
West Lafayette, IN 47906(765) 463-7175
Clinical Operations
8910 Purdue Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268(317) 876-1478
www.endocyte.com
Multiple Drug Development Opportunities
DGS has the ability to combine a wide range of drugs with different targeting agents. Based on this strategy, Endocyte has advanced six investigational drugs to clinical trials. The company’s lead compound, EC145, includes a super-potent anti-cancer agent that has proven efficacy in killing cancer cells. Without DGS targeting, the agent presents an unacceptable risk of dangerous side effects in patients. In a phase 1 study, patients were treated with EC145 for extended periods without developing significant toxicities.
Endocyte is now conducting three phase 2 studies of EC145 together with EC20, a companion molecular diagnostic imaging agent. Other products in the Endocyte pipeline include EC0225, a targeted combination of two potent anti-cancer drugs; EC17, a targeted immunotherapy agent; and EC0489, a targeted cancer drug. Endocyte also has multiple additional drug candidates in preclinical development.
Beyond Cancer
In addition to cancer, many other diseases overexpress receptors on diseased cells. Endocyte is advancing research to use the DGS technology platform to develop new drugs with the potential to target cells associated with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, psoriasis, atherosclerosis, ischemia, Crohn’s disease, and other inflammatory diseases. The DGS technology platform can be linked to a variety of new targeted drugs, including targeted SiRNA, nanoparticles, small therapeutic molecules, and diagnostic agents.
Endocyte’s new DGS platform is helping to usher in a new era of targeted treatments and predictive medicine.
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