Structured around developing novel targeted treatments for patients with highly aggressive cancers, the first product in the Adecto Pharmaceutical pipeline is an antibody-based therapy for triple-negative breast cancers. Originally workng at Tufts, principals of the firm organzied developing an antibodies, against the specific protein ADAM, for the treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) and metastatic breast cancer as the initial indications.TNBC represents a portion of breast tumor cases but is highly metastatic and accounts for more than half of the breast cancer deaths yearly worldwide. The ADAM8 protein is expressed on the cancer cell surface, downstream of the NF-?B family of transcription factors known to promote resistance to chemotherapy and tumor metastasis. Consistently, ADAM8 is a critical driver of growth and spread of many aggressive cancers. Adectos initial focus is on triple-negative breast cancer with a plan to expand to other oncology indications in the future. The firm's approach is based on the discovery that two distinct extracellular portions of ADAM8 drive its multiple cancer promoting functions and must therefore be both inactivated for an effective therapeutic response. Using a proprietary method, Adecto Pharmaceuticals has generated highly specific dual antagonist monoclonal anti-ADAM8 antibodies that simultaneously inhibit these two domains. Two top dual inhibitors, termed ADP2 and ADP13, are currently advancing through preclinical development. Development of a diagnostic product is also in the pipeline.
