ProfoundBio to Highlight Programs and Technology at AACR 2022 Annual Meeting; Welcomes Zhu Chen, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer

ProfoundBio announced that preclinical data from its pipeline of novel, proprietary antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and technology will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting being held April 8 — 13, 2022. The presentations will highlight three late-stage preclinical programs utilizing ProfoundBio’s leading ADC technology as well as advances in linker-drug development. In addition, ProfoundBio announced the appointment of Zhu Chen, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer.

“First of all, I am very excited to have Dr. Chen join the ProfoundBio leadership team. Her top-notch scientific background and drug development expertise will further strengthen our capability in ADC discovery and development, in addition to accelerating the bench to bedside translation of our novel, proprietary technology.” said Baiteng Zhao, PhD, Chief Executive Officer. “These presentations at the AACR annual meeting will demonstrate the continued and rapid advancement of our lead programs as well as the potential of our ADC technology. I look forward to bringing these programs to clinical trials to help patients with cancer.”

“ADCs are complex molecules being increasingly incorporated into the treatment armamentarium of various cancers. We have designed a novel hydrophilic linker-drug platform that possesses improved physicochemical properties compared to conventional linker-drugs; this platform can enable the use of hydrophobic payloads at drug to antibody ratios (DARs) up to 8 and potentially higher, as dictated by target biology, while maintaining favorable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics in preclinical models and potentially in the clinic.” said Zhu Chen, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer.

Dr. Chen joins ProfoundBio with extensive experience in drug discovery and development in various disease areas. She was most recently Global Medical Lead at Daiichi Sankyo responsible for medical strategy and launch preparation for a number of compounds including datopotamab deruxtecan. Her prior roles include Global Medical Lead at Celgene driving the medical and launch activities for multiple assets in hematologic malignancies, and Discovery/Early Development Lead at Merck for multiple programs. Dr. Chen received her B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from Peking University, and Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Genetics from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She received her post-doctoral training at the Rockefeller University.

PRO1184

PRO1184 is an ADC composed of a novel, proprietary antibody against folate receptor alpha conjugated to the exatecan payload via a novel hydrophilic linker. PRO1184 exhibited an encouraging preclinical profile on PK, PD, efficacy in several tumor types including NSCLC and ovarian cancer, and was well-tolerated in a pilot non-human primate safety study. PRO1184 is a promising candidate to be advanced to the clinic.

A poster entitled “PRO1184, a novel folate receptor alpha-directed antibody-drug conjugate, demonstrates robust anti-tumor activity in mouse carcinoma models” will be presented on April 11, 2022 9:00 am — 12:30 pm.

PRO1160

PRO1160 is an ADC composed of a novel, proprietary antibody against CD70 conjugated to the exatecan payload via a novel hydrophilic linker. PRO1160 produced robust antitumor effect in preclinical models of solid tumors and lymphoma while maintaining PK characteristics similar to the parental mAb in rats and was well-tolerated in a pilot non-human primate safety study. PRO1160 may be an attractive molecule for further development in various cancers.

A poster entitled “PRO1160, a novel CD70-directed antibody-drug conjugate, demonstrates robust anti-tumor activity in mouse models of renal cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma” will be presented on April 11, 2022 1:30 pm — 5:00 pm.

PRO1102

PRO1102 is an ADC composed of trastuzumab conjugated to the exatecan payload via a novel hydrophilic linker. PRO1102 displayed excellent PK and PD characteristics in preclinical models, was more potent than conventional trastuzumab-based ADCs in vivo especially in models with moderate or low HER2 expression, and was well-tolerated in preliminary assessment in rodents. Results highlighted the best-in-class potential of the novel linker-drug (LD) platform.

A poster entitled “The preclinical pharmacology of PRO1102, a novel exatecan-based HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate with robust anti-tumor activity” will be presented on April 11, 2022 1:30 pm — 5:00 pm.

ADC Technology

The novel LDs (based on exatecan, or MMAE, or eribulin payloads) when conjugated to a tool antibody conferred excellent physicochemical properties and favorable PK/PD characteristics compared to benchmarking ADCs with conventional platform in preclinical models. Along with the tolerability assessment reported in the accompanying presentations, results illustrated that the novel LDs may be broadly applied to discovery and development of new ADCs with a potentially expanded therapeutic index in the clinic.

A poster entitled “Novel ADC platform delivers promising in vivo activity and safety” will be presented on April 11, 2022 9:00 am — 12:30 pm.

Source: ProfoundBio