Our Capabilities
Today, conjugate drug development is one of the fastest growing and promising sectors in the life science industry. With the recent FDA approval of two ADCs, the industry is eager to explore opportunities in ADCs and other related conjugate drugs. Historically, the technical barrier for entering this sector is huge. To take advantage of this opportunity, a successful company needs to have robust conjugation processes and novel linkers/polymers in place. With few players and limited technologies in the market, most of the companies seek collaborations or licensing deals to develop conjugate drugs.
CellMosaic started the development of its conjugation-based platform in 2008 and has performed numerous conjugations involving a variety of molecules. AqT™ linkers are by far the most pure, hydrophilic, and versatile linkers in development. We can effectively synthesize any AqT™ molecule with superior properties for developing conjugate drugs. This flexibility in AqT™ molecules cannot be matched by any existing linker/polymer technologies due to the versatile nature of sugar alcohol monomers and the modularity of their chemistry. We are also able to explore new opportunities beyond the ADC field for target-specific drug delivery due to our advanced conjugation processes and versatile AqT™ architectures. With exclusive patents on AqT™ molecules and our advanced conjugation processes, we are well positioned to collaborate/partner with other companies to develop AqT™ conjugate drugs.
AqT ™ Drug Development Path
Lead Development (Proof-of-concept)
Initial lead AqT™ conjugated compounds can be identified quickly based on the properties of unmodified drug candidates, their activities, and improvements. Particular effort will be focused on their shortcomings and any improvement that can be made through an AqT ™ molecule (solubility, stability, pK profiles, immunogenicity). The lead compound is then either modified alone with existing AqT™ molecules or conjugated to other targeted molecules with AqT™ molecules to quickly obtain proof-of-concept data.
The AqT™ platform offers a rapid, rational approach to drug discovery. Rationale design and generation of the novel AqT™ drug entity can typically be accomplished within a few months.
Lead Optimization
Once the lead AqT™ entity is established, improvements in the drug and drug delivery properties are assessed. The AqT™ drug will be rationally optimized using a library of AqT™ molecules, and if necessary, diverse chemical architectures of AqT™ molecules. Drug development is a complicated and challenging process, and each drug is unique. Therefore, the success of a specific AqT™ drug cannot guarantee the success of another AqT™ conjugation program using another drug; however, the broad applicability of the platform and the flexibility of the basic modular, additive chemistry allows for a standard methodology to rationally develop and choose the right AqT™ molecule for your program.
The AqT™ platform offers a great avenue for drug optimization. Robust chemical methods have been established to allow a modular approach to building versatile AqT™ molecules. This modularity gives flexibility in building any AqT™ molecule with the desired properties. The library of AqT™ molecules with similar properties offers a great way to fine tune the properties of the compound.
Process and Method Development
AqueaTether™ Threapeutics offers an integrated conjugate drug discovery and development approach for partners. Once a candidate is selected and optimized, AqueaTether™ Threapeutics can help support the scale-up of novel AqT™ molecules specific for the partners’ application and its drug conjugates. Purification and bio-analytical characterization methods will be developed specific for this conjugate.