Scancell progresses its new anti-glycan mAb17 Mar 2022 07:12
17 March 2022
Scancell Holdings plc
("Scancell" or the "Company")
Scancell progresses its new anti-glycan monoclonal antibody (mAb) platform GlyMab(TM)
Initial anti-glycan mAbs from the GlyMab(TM) platform have now been successfully humanised
Fourth research agreement on Glymab(TM) platform signed with major European Pharma
Scancell Holdings plc (AIM: SCLP), the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and infectious disease, provides an update on its anti-glycan monoclonal antibody (mAb) platform, now branded GlyMab(TM). The Company's fourth proprietary platform has the potential to expand further its pipeline of novel anti-cancer mAbs and the versatility to yield other drug formats including antibody drug conjugate and CAR-T candidates. Scancell is developing a unique pipeline of tumour-specific anti-glycan antibodies with the initial aim of generating early-stage clinical data, either alone or in combination with potential strategic partners.
The Company currently has a pipeline of five anti-glycan mAbs: SC129, SC134, SC88 and SC27 that target solid tumours including pancreatic, small cell lung, colorectal and gastric, and SC2811 that targets a glycolipid on T cell stem cells. Four (SC129, SC27, SC134 and SC88) out of five of these drug candidates have now been successfully humanised and are therefore ready for the next stage of development.
In addition, the company is pleased to announce its fourth research collaboration agreement based on the Glymab(TM) platform. The agreement is with a major European pharmaceutical company and is designed to further evaluate one of the company's Glymab(TM) antibodies for the treatment of cancer.
Scancell believes that GlyMab(TM) can be employed to produce additional differentiated anti-cancer mAbs that target sugar motifs (glycans) present on putative lipid and / or protein drug targets. The platform also has the potential to be used for drug delivery as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells or for redirected T cell killing. Furthermore, such high affinity anti-glycan mAbs also have the potential to be used for targeted imaging to distinguish malignant from healthy tissue during cancer surgery.(1,2)
A robust portfolio of patents and applications, as well as know-how, surround the GlyMab(TM) platform and generated drug candidates. The GlyMab(TM) technology is part of Scancell's antibody portfolio, joining AvidiMab(R) , a technology that can be applied to all antibodies (regardless of the technology used to generate them), enhancing their potency and ability to directly kill tumour cells.
Prof Lindy Durrant, Chief Executive Officer, Scancell, commented:
"We believe our proprietary GlyMab(TM) platform provides a powerful and versatile approach to generating novel antibody drug candidates that bind to sugar motifs, rather than peptide epitopes, found on the surface of glycosylated proteins and lipids that are implica