Image credit: shutterstock
Australian biotechnology company Starpharma has signed a new DEP Research Agreement with MSD, the trade name of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA.
Starpharma's dendrimer drug delivery technology is known as DEP. Starpharma uses DEP both in its own drug development pipeline and with partners.This new DEP programme will generate and evaluate additional DEP Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs).
This new agreement follows an earlier DEP Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) agreement that Starpharma signed with MSD in February 2021 as well as an expanded DEP Research Agreement with another large US biopharmaceutical company in June 2022.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have become an increasingly valuable class of therapeutic agents in oncology and hematology. The design of ADCs incorporates the specific cell targeting property of antibodies with the cell killing properties of chemically conjugated drugs, to provide a targeted therapeutic with minimal off target toxicities.
Starpharma has multiple DEP partnerships with leading, international companies, including AstraZeneca, MSD, and Chase Sun, and the company's DEP technology has already yielded four clinical-stage oncology products.
