The development of cancer is accompanied by a change in the composition of a sugar molecule called chondroitin sulfate. This sugar molecule becomes unusually long and heavily sulfated. For years, VAR2 has pursued the development of cancer therapeutics targeting this secondary modification called oncofetal chondroitin sulfate. But until recently, the known difficulties in generating antibodies against carbohydrates have hindered our progress.

Today, we are proud to announce the publication in Nature Communications of a real tour de force, collaborative effort that resulted in the development and extensive pre-clinical validation of first-in class antibodies binding oncofetal CS. We demonstrate these bind most cancer cell lines and show limited binding to normal tissue. Therapeutic formulations as antibody drug conjugate with MMAE or as an CD3-bispecific show curative effects across a range of animal models with no observed side effects.

This study anchors the work we are now moving forward in VAR2, with a phase 0 expected to start later this year paving the way for efficacy trials.

Read more about it here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51781-0