On July 26, 2018 Sutro Biopharma, Inc., reported that it has secured $85.4 million in Series E financing to advance its wholly-owned pipeline of novel cancer therapeutics, including two internally-developed antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, known as STRO-001, now in Phase 1 clinical testing for lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and STRO-002, which is expected to enter clinical trials for ovarian and endometrial cancer by early 2019 (Press release, Sutro Biopharma, JUL 26, 2018, View Source [SID1234529227]). Proceeds will also be used to further early stage programs and continued platform technology advancement. STRO-001 and STRO-002 were developed using Sutro’s proprietary cell-free protein synthesis and site-specific conjugation platforms, which facilitate precision design and rapid empirical optimization of protein conjugates to treat cancer and other diseases.
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The financing was led by Samsara BioCapital and Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), and supported by current investors, Alta Partners, Amgen Ventures, Celgene Corporation, Lilly Ventures, Skyline Ventures and SV Health Investors. This financing also includes first-time investments from Eventide, Nexthera Capital, Vida Ventures and funds managed by Tekla Capital Management LLC. Additionally, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has made an investment and has made a commitment to a future investment. Mike Dybbs, PhD, Partner at Samsara BioCapital, will join the Sutro Board of Directors.
"With this latest round of funding, Sutro has raised over $175 million since its founding in 2003 – a vote of confidence in our work on a new generation of novel, targeted therapies with the potential for improved therapeutic profiles," Sutro CEO Bill Newell said.
Sutro’s Proprietary Cell-Free Platform
Sutro’s XpressCFTM and XpressCF+TM cell-free protein synthesis and site-specific conjugation platforms enable rapid evaluation of a wide variety of protein structures and design and manufacturing of a highly-optimized single molecular species, rather than the usual mixture of imprecisely conjugated antibodies that comprise an ADC made by conventional cell-based manufacturing.
This cell-free technology should allow Sutro to move optimized proteins seamlessly through every stage of development — from discovery through commercial-stage production, without needing to generate individual cell lines for protein production.
Sutro’s manufacturing center in San Carlos, California, is the first and only current cGMP compliant scalable cell-free protein synthesis manufacturing facility and is built to maximize the speed and efficiency of protein production.
Dr. Trevor Hallam, Sutro’s chief scientific officer, said: "With XpressCF+TM, we incorporate non-natural amino acids into specific positions on the generated antibody for site-specific conjugation of cytotoxins with a linker and warhead to enable consistent, stable, pinpoint placement of STRO-001’s toxic payload. This leads to highly efficient delivery of the cytotoxin to tumor cells. By contrast, earlier generations of ADCs can have unpredictable pharmacologic properties, resulting in the potential for sub-optimal stability, compromised efficacy and poor tolerability for patients."