Neoantigenics LLC, an oncology biotechnology company established in 2012 and grown out of University research partners, has secured patents on technology to better target and eliminate certain types of cancer using natural human proteins.
Pfizer Inc., a leading American multinational pharmaceutical corporation, has invested an unknown monetary amount in these developments.
Founding CEO of Neoantigenics Brian Pollock said they have kept the rights to any drugs it develops and all six patents it currently has.
The collaboration will focus on the development of antibody-based therapeutics and diagnostics. Pollock said the company is doing research into certain markers, which are found on both human egg cells and cancer cells. Using the marker, the SAS1B protein, researchers hope to create a drug that can target only cancer cells and leave healthy cells alone.
“One can generate antibodies specific to those proteins,” Pollock said. “It’s like a guided missile.”
Medicine Prof. John Herr, the scientific founder of Neoantigenics, said the partnership with Pfizer will provide the Neoantigenics team with a group of advisors to influence and track the research.
“Pfizer acts as an investment in cancer research, and in addition they threw a team of advisors who work in order to influence and keep track of the research and the Center for Innovative Technology functions as an investor, too,” Herr said.
Pollock said the company hopes to develop a drug and have it go through the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process in the next two to three years.
“Within the next 15 months, our goal is to have an antibody that has been linked to a drug and to have seen some efficacy in an animal model,” Pollock said. “Once that human model has been shown to work as well, we can go into pre-development.”
The Pfizer Seed Fund, which aids innovative, early-stage life companies, also invested in Neoantigenics. The Center for Innovative Technology’s GAP Fund and the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund gave the company awards.
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