Igenica Biotherapeutics, focused on the discovery and development of innovative cancer antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), has been awarded a $215,740 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to support continued development of its SNAP site-specific ADC linker technology.

SNAP technology, named for its speed and ease of use, overcomes the major limitations of current approaches by providing a simple, chemically-driven method for linking any anti-cancer antibody and small molecule cytotoxic drug to produce ADC products with optimal and uniform ratios of drug to antibody.

“Drug companies are aggressively pursuing ADCs as powerful new anti-cancer medicines comprised of a monoclonal antibody, a linker and a payload,” said Mary Haak-Frendscho, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Igenica. “SNAP is a transformative, chemically-driven and broadly applicable technology that will accelerate the development of next-generation cancer therapeutics designed to selectively target cancer cells with potent cytotoxic agents.”

The current generation of ADCs, which are developed using conventional chemistry approaches, offer limited benefits to patients because they are heterogeneous drug mixtures containing variants with sub-optimal pharmaceutical properties. Igenica’s SNAP technology is comprised of a cutting-edge and proprietary linker that yields homogeneous ADCs armed with the optimal quantity of toxin payload to kill cancer cells. This approach should translate to drugs with lower toxicity and higher efficacy for cancer patients.