NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Siamab Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer therapeutics, today announced that Jeff Behrens, president and chief executive officer, will present at the 10th annual Biotech Showcase™ conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 1:45 p.m. PT. The conference will be held January 8-10, 2018, at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
Mr. Behrens will provide an overview of the company, its proprietary technology platform and its development pipeline, including the ST1 program. ST1, Siamab’s lead monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutic, is in late stage preclinical development formatted as an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) for the treatment of solid tumors expressing Sialyl-Tn (STn). Mr. Behrens will also present new data on targeting STn+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), major regulators of the tumor anti-immune response that act by suppressing T cells. Siamab has for the first time identified and utilized the presence of STn on MDSCs to target and deplete MDSCs in vivo, providing a potential new therapeutic approach for the treatment of solid tumors.
“We look forward to presenting an overview of our glycan-targeting platform to treat solid tumors,” said Mr. Behrens. “We will be focusing on promising new data from the ST1 program that points to STn+ MDSCs as an exciting and untapped immune-oncology target. ST1 has demonstrated excellent efficacy and safety in multiple IND-enabling tumor models as a direct anti-cancer therapy, and it may also have the potential to deplete MDSCs, which are known to be potent suppressors of tumor immunity.”
Siamab’s proprietary technology platform enables the development of highly specific mAb therapeutics, including ADCs, bi-specific antibodies and CAR-T cell therapies, targeting cancer cell surface glycans called tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs). TACAs are an emerging set of tumor antigens that are implicated in immune suppression, chemoresistance and a cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype. The elevated presence of STn—a key TACA observed in a number of solid tumors, including ovarian, prostate, pancreatic, gastric, and colon—is associated with metastatic disease, poor prognosis, and reduced overall survival. Elevation of STn expression is linked to chemotherapy resistance and enables tumors to evade the host immune system. In addition, STn is expressed on multiple biomarkers including the CSC biomarkers CD44 and MUC1, which reside on both CSCs and mature malignant cells in some cancer types.
Siamab scientists have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of their anti-STn antibody therapeutic in multiple preclinical studies. The company’s lead ST1 ADC was shown to inhibit tumor progression in cell line-derived and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models of ovarian and pancreatic cancer, with complete regression observed in some treatment arms. In addition, preclinical evaluation has demonstrated the compound’s safety across species, including in non-human primates.
Siamab is also utilizing STn-selective antibodies to develop both tissue- and serum-based biomarker assays with the potential to become companion diagnostics for both the stratification of patients as well as tools for assessing the pharmacodynamics action of the anti-STn therapeutic in the clinic.
About Siamab Therapeutics, Inc.
Siamab Therapeutics, Inc. is
a biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer therapeutics
targeting cancer-specific carbohydrate antigens seen in multiple solid
tumors. Siamab has developed a platform that enables the rapid discovery
and development of therapeutic antibodies that bind with unprecedented
specificity and affinity to the novel class of carbohydrate antigens
present on cancer cells called tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens
(TACAs). TACAs are an exciting cancer target class due to their cancer
specificity, association with a chemoresistant phenotype, and ability to
suppress immune function in solid tumors. The company’s lead program,
ST1, targets Sialyl-Tn (STn), a tumor specific antigen expressed in
multiple solid tumors including ovarian, pancreatic, prostate and colon
cancers. ST1 is in late-stage preclinical studies for the treatment of
solid tumors. Visit www.siamab.com
to learn more about the company.
