Cytogen and Dowpharma to Develop Targeted Anticancer Product

Cytogen Corporation (Princeton, NJ) and Dowpharma, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI) have joined forces to develop a new, targeted therapy to treat prostate and other cancers.

The team will use Dowpharma’s “MeO-DOTA” bifunctional chelant technology to attach a beta-emitting radionuclide lutetium-177 as a payload to Cytogen’s “7E11-C5.3” antibody.  This monoclonal antibody targets prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a protein often expressed by the most aggressive clones of prostate cancer cells and tumors.

Dowpharma’s technology will bind the therapeutic radioisotope to the same murine monoclonal antibody used in Cytogen’s “Prostascint” molecular imaging procedure for detecting the spread of prostate cancer with a gamma camera. According to the company, it is the first and only commercial product that targets PSMA. Researchers are hopeful the technique will offer improved diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer.

Said William Goeckeler, PhD, senior vice-president of operations at Cytogen, “DOTA-based bifunctional chelating agents have been shown to provide exceptional stability to [e]nsure that therapeutic radionuclides do not separate from the monoclonal antibodies that target them to tumors.”

–Kaylynn Chiarello