As long as radiation is used to treat cancer, the goal is always the same: destroy the DNA of cancer cells to kill them. Advances in radiotherapy have made the method more targeted, thereby avoiding healthy tissue. Radiopharmaceuticals use engineered molecules to carry out this targeted attack. But the basic goal of destroying cancer DNA has not changed.
Curie Therapeutics is bringing new changes to radiopharmaceuticals. CEO Simon Read said that his company does not consider radiopharmaceuticals from the perspective of individual components, but considers the molecule as a whole. In this case, radiopharmaceuticals can be configured with different payloads for different tasks, even beyond the simple task of destroying cancer DNA.
This startup has been incubating for the past 18 months. On Wednesday, Curie walked out of the state of secrecy and provided some details about his plans and the $75 million in financing to implement these plans. The A round of financing came from Atlas Ventures, Access Biotechnology and RA Capital Management, three venture capital companies that formed and incubated the company.
The creation of Curie is a bit unusual. Curie’s name comes from the unit of measurement of radioactivity. Although it is more and more common for venture capital companies to set up their own start-up companies to promote the development of new science, Read said that Curie’s start came from the joint efforts of the three founding investors. In general, they saw an opportunity for radiopharmaceuticals to meet the unsatisfactory needs of new cell therapies and biopharmaceuticals in the treatment of solid tumors. Read said that instead of forming three independent and competing companies, it is better to form one company and take comprehensive measures against radiopharmaceuticals.
In the past, radiochemistry, radiobiology, and ligand design and discovery often did not work together within one company. Read said he was the former chief scientific officer of Ra Pharma, a developer of rare disease drugs, and a former resident entrepreneur. Atlas Insurance Investment Company. Curie gathered all these disciplines under one roof. Read added that in some respects, the startup’s approach draws on antibody-drug conjugates, a cancer therapy made from monoclonal antibodies, anti-cancer payloads, and linking molecules that connect them. These ADC components vary by therapy and cancer goals. Similarly, in order to construct the best radiopharmaceutical, Read said it is important to consider the entire molecule—the characteristics it will have and how the different parts fit together.
“This is a starting point, thinking that these molecules are almost like Lego bricks,” Read said.
Radiation therapy uses one of two different types of radiation particles to destroy cancer DNA. Alpha particles are more powerful, but they cannot penetrate tissues well. Smaller beta particles are better at penetrating tissues, but have poorer therapeutic effects. Read said that Curie is ready to use alpha and beta emitting radiopharmaceuticals, depending on what is needed: alpha particles for smaller tumors and beta particles for larger tumors.
Reid said that in addition to stimulating the killing effect of cancer cells, Curie is also developing radiopharmaceuticals that provide more subtle ways to regulate what happens inside tumors. For example, exposure to Curie radiation therapy may stimulate tumors to express antigens, making them useful for other types of cancer therapies, such as immunotherapy or DNA damage repair inhibitors. This means that Curie radiopharmaceuticals can be used as part of a series of treatments or as part of a paired treatment.
“I believe that radiopharmaceuticals will transform from a targeted drug that is good at killing tumor cells to a reasonable treatment sequence in the early treatment line,” Read said.
For decades, radiopharmaceuticals have been used to treat cancer, but in recent years, companies large and small have renewed interest in the field.Novartis spends US$3.9 billion Get the premium accelerator app, Its Lutathera therapy in 2018 became the first FDA approved radiopharmaceuticals Used to treat certain gastrointestinal cancers.The pharmaceutical giant subsequently spent $2.1 billion to acquire Endocyte, which is a developer of radioligand therapy aimed at Cases of difficult-to-treat prostate cancer.
Start-up companies are also constantly emerging, adopting new radiopharmaceutical methods. Last fall, RayzeBio launched US$45 million is used to develop radiotherapy based on the alpha emitter actinium-225. March, Aktis Oncology announced that it has received US$72 million in Series A financing For alpha radiation therapy, the startup intends to be less toxic to healthy tissues.
Now that Curie has placed itself in the portfolio of new radiopharmaceutical developers, Read stated that the focus is on building a drug pipeline. He declined to elaborate on the pipeline, nor would he provide an estimate of when these experimental therapies may enter clinical testing. Although Curie is not actively seeking partnerships, Read said the company is willing to work with large companies interested in exploring radiobiology and how targeted radiation can manipulate tumors.
Photos of Flickr users John Jones Through knowledge sharing license
