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First-in-Class Therapeutics for a Pan-Cancer Glycosaminoglycan
VAR2 Pharmaceuticals
We are a near-clinical-stage Danish biotech company spun out from the University of Copenhagen in 2012. Meet our Team and Read out Company History.
Our Mission is to develop novel theparies for cancer with a perticular focus on hard-to-treat, recurrent and metastatic cancers.
Our first-in-class therapeutic target. An omnipresent, tumor-agnostic secondary glycosaminoglycan modification which is 100-1000x overexpressed in malignant tissue when compared with healthy tissue (except placenta) and present on the cell surface, circulation and tumor stroma of all cancer types (epithelial, mesenchymal, or hematological).
First-in-class antibody portfolio with high (nM) affinity and high specificity for Onco-fetal Chondroitin Sulfate.
Vartumabs bind all tested cancers and show little binding to healthy tissue. Vartumabs and different Vartumabs-based therapeutic assets show long plasma half-life, complete tumor penetration and localize specifically and only to tumors in rodent models.
Our most developed assets — ADCs & CD3-bispecifics — show curative effects with no off-target effect or alteration in blood panels in CDX and PDX mouse models of different epithelial, mesenchymal, or hematological cancers. Vartumab-based ADCs display a dual mode of action, being internalization and targeting the tumor microenvironment.
Our first clinical study — a first-in-human microdosing study — will start in Q3 2024.
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ABOUT
A world without cancer!
VAR2 Pharma is a privately held biotechnology company engaged in the design and development of proprietary therapeutic antibodies targeting cancer-specific carbohydrate structures for multiple cancer indications
The company
Based on the groundbreaking discovery of a secondary carbohydrate modification omnipresent in the cancer matrisome and absent from normal tissues beside placenta, we have developed a portfolio of antibodies binding this onco-fetal modification. The antibodies have an unprecedented affinity and specificity for tumor tissues, holding the promise to be developed to treatments for cancers including malignancies where there is no effective therapy, such as sarcomas, triple negative breast cancers, glioblastomas, and prostate cancers.