Collaboration extended to develop better treatments for cancer
York-based biotech business Aptamer Group has extended its collaboration agreement with PinotBio, an oncology-focused biotechnology company.
Together, the companies will develop four new Optimer-drug conjugates for use as precision chemotherapeutics in the treatment of cancers.
The partnership began in June 2021, targeting haematological cancers, and the first phase of the project has been successfully completed.
It demonstrated the viability of combining Optimer technology with PinotBio’s proprietary linker-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform for targeted drug delivery to cancer cells and the effective killing of the target cells by chemotherapy.
Dr Arron Tolley, chief executive officer of Aptamer Group, said: “The data from the first phase of this work, combining our Optimer technology with PinotBio’s linker and chemotherapeutic payloads, were very promising.
“It demonstrated the power of Optimer binders to develop effective enabling technologies resulting in drug-conjugate development targeting different disease states.
“As a result, we are very excited to be able to extend this collaboration with PinotBio to develop Optimer-drug conjugates as novel cancer treatments.
“We are encouraged by the potential of these novel format drugs to make a difference and improve the quality of cancer patient lives through reduced side effects, and we look forward to providing updates in due course.”
