On February 6, 2024 Nascent Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB:NBIO) ("Nascent Biotech", "Nascent"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of various cancers and viral infections, reported that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with Manhattan BioSolutions, Inc. (Manhattan Bio), an emerging biotech company focused on precision biologics, to explore antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) using Nascent’s lead clinical candidate pritumumab (PTB) as the tumor-targeting antibody element (Press release, Nascent Biotech, FEB 6, 2024, View Source [SID1234639878]).
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Pritumumab (PTB) is a natural human antibody. This monoclonal antibody targets extracellular form of vimentin, a protein that has been linked to cancer growth and metastasis and is overexpressed in both brain and pancreatic cancers as well as other hard tumor cancers. PTB is a targeted immunotherapy that binds to vimentin in tumors and recruits the immune system to eliminate cancer cells. PTB has demonstrated a promising safety profile and preliminary efficacy in completed Phase I study in glioblastoma patients. Nascent has been recently cleared by the FDA to begin Phase II clinical trials for brain cancer.
In preclinical experiments, PTB antibody has shown the capacity to cross the blood-brain barrier with the additional potential to transport conjugated drugs into brain tissues, and Nascent holds a patent covering this specialized delivery mechanism. Under the terms of the agreement, Manhattan Bio will perform PTB conjugations to industry standard linker-payloads and will evaluate the resulting ADCs in the in vitro cell assays. The most promising candidates will be prioritized for further development for the treatment of vimentin-positive and potential secondary targets in advanced or metastatic tumors.
Nascent CEO, Sean Carrick, commented: "We are thrilled to unlock the full disruptive potential of pritumumab against cancer by collaborating with Manhattan Bio’s world-leading scientists. This collaboration serves as an exciting first step in uncovering the possibilities of better targeted cancer therapies."
"Pritumumab offers unexplored potential as an ADC vector, and we are excited to test that promise leveraging our expertise in ADC discovery and development. This could pave the way for applying our newest linker-payload innovations to pritumumab in the future" said Dr. Borys Shor, CEO of Manhattan Bio.