Cancer Targeted Technology
Cancer Targeted Technology is designing and patenting small molecular weight enzyme inhibitors with unique and exceptional imaging and drug delivery properties. Cancer Targeted Technology (CTT) develops innovative targeted agents for cancer that accurately detect, stratify and treat early and advanced disease, and monitor treatment efficacy to improve patient survival and quality of life. CTT is a biotechnology company commercializing innovative small molecules that bind pivotal enzyme targets in cancer.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Pharmaceuticals
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
About Us
CTT has rationally designed and patented a targeting scaffold that recognizes the molecular target, Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), with unparalleled binding characteristics, making it stand out from its competitors. PSMA is an exceptional biomarker, expressed on close to 90% of prostate tumors, with increased PSMA expression correlated with disease progression while normal tissue expression of PSMA is negative to low. CTT’s small molecule drugs are unique as they bind irreversibly to the PSMA target and are rapidly internalized by PSMA-expressing tumor cells. As a consequence of this, more of the drug reaches and stays at the tumor site. CTT’s targeting agents act as a platform to effectively and safely deliver a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic payloads.
CTT’s is initially targeting prostate cancer with these drugs. More than 2.9 million men in the US suffer from prostate cancer with approximately 200,000 new cases and approximately 30,000 men expected to die from the disease per year. PSMA is also expressed on the new blood vessels of other solid tumors, including colon, liver, renal cell, and lung, providing a broad market for CTT’s PSMA-targeted agents.
CTT’s unique cancer agents are designed to accurately detect, stratify and treat early and advanced disease, monitor treatment efficacy and improve patient survival and quality of life.
Technology
CTT develops small molecule scaffolds with a unique mode of binding to enzyme biomarkers important in cancer.
Targeting the enzyme biomarker Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) on cancer is leading to exciting new imaging and therapeutic agents for prostate and other cancers. PSMA is expressed on greater than 90% of all prostate cancers. The expression increases as the cancer spreads and metastasizes and expression is strong in late-stage androgen-independent prostate tumors.
PSMA is also an attractive target given its broader expression on the neovasculature of various solid tumors, including kidney, bladder, lung, prostate, colorectal, pancreatic and melanoma cancers.
- Imaging PET Diagnostic for Prostate Cancer and other solid vascularized tumors
- Companion Therapeutic for Prostate Cancer and other solid vascularized tumors
- Well validated target
- Expressed on >95% of prostate tumors
- Expression increases as the prostate cancer progresses
- Minimal expression on normal tissue
- Expressed on blood vessels in most solid tumors
Various chemical scaffolds have been developed as inhibitors of PSMA’s enzymatic activity. It is well recognized that significant advances in prostate cancer could be achieved if the simplicity and affinity of small molecule PSMA inhibitors could be harnessed as an effective platform to deliver chemo and/or radio-therapeutic payloads.
- Binds extracellularly
- Nanomolar affinity to PSMA
- Binds “irreversibly” and is rapidly and extensively internalized
- Can carry a wide variety of payloads
CTT has developed both imaging and therapeutic drugs based on a peptidomimetic core that targets PSMA with high affinity. This specific PSMA targeting molecule was selected from a class of irreversible PSMA inhibitors that can deliver a number of different payloads to PSMA positive tumors. Although comparable to other PSMA inhibitors in terms of affinity for PSMA, CTT’s unique technology represents the only known irreversible PSMA inhibitors. In addition, CTT’s PSMA inhibitors possess nanomolar or better affinity for PSMA and can selectively deliver payloads to the surface and intracellular space of prostate tumor cells through the rapid internalization of the enzyme inhibitor complex.