Nascent Biotech & Manhattan Bio: Pritumumab ADC Collaboration

Nascent Biotech, Inc., a clinical biotechnology company, announced that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) research with Manhattan BioSolutions, Inc. (Manhattan Bio), an innovative biotech company focused on equity.) Nascentand's lead clinical candidate, pritumumab (PTB), is used as a tumor suppressor antibody component. Pritumumab (PTB) is a natural human antibiotic. This monoclonal antibody targets the extracellular form of vimentin, a protein involved in cancer growth and metastasis, with the ability to be expressed in brain and pancreatic cancers and other solid tumor cancers.

PTB is a targeted immunotherapy agent that binds to tumor vimentin and stimulates the immune system to destroy cancer cells. PTB showed an initial safety and efficacy profile in a completed phase 1 study in patients with glioblastoma. The FDA has cleared Nascent to begin Phase 2 clinical trials for brain cancer. In previous experiments, PTB antibodies have demonstrated the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and the additional ability to deliver drugs to brain tissue.

Nascent holds a patent for this unique delivery method. Under the terms of the agreement, Manhattan Bio will perform the compounding of PTBs at industry-standard link prices and evaluate the resulting ADCs in vitro cellular assays. The most promising candidates will be targets for developing vimentin-positive, second-line targeted therapies for advanced or metastatic tumors. Nascent CEO Sean Carrick said:

"We are pleased to partner with Manhattan Bio and world-leading scientists to unlock the potential of pritumumab in cancer. This collaboration is an exciting first step in opening up the possibility of better treatments against cancer. “Pritumumab offers unexplored potential as an ADC vector, and we are excited to apply our expertise in ADC discovery and development to test this promise. This will pave the way for further cost-effectiveness updates to pritumumab,” said Dr. Borys Shor, CEO of Manhattan Bio.