Industry Update: The latest developments in therapeutic delivery

The present industry update covers the period 16 February–15 March 2012, which included the announcement of two large deals in the drug conjugation space – Mersana partnered its Fleximer technology with Endo for application to antibody drug conjugates, and Angiochem partnered with GlaxoSmithKline for application of its LRP-1 receptor-targeting technology to lysosomal storage diseases. Two Boston, MA, USA-area start-ups reached early funding milestones: 4s3 Bioscience, developing an antibody-based system for enhanced intracellular delivery of proteins, closed a US$20 million Series A round, while Kala Pharmaceuticals, developing a mucus-penetrating particle technology, completed a US$11.2 million seed round. Organogenesis’ cell-based mucogingival therapy and Discovery Labs’ synthetic peptide-based pulmonary surfactant received product approvals. Endocyte announced plans to submit marketing applications for its folate-receptor targeting-based diagnostic and therapy for ovarian cancer.