TECHNOLOGY
“HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW”
The cancer immune shielding pathway was discovered serendipitously by Saccharo’s co-founder while developing vaccines for bacterial pathogens. He discovered that fetal cells, cancer cells and certain pathogens deployed a similar polysaccharide-based mechanism for evading human immune defenses.
NOVEL CANCER TARGET
Key to the novel immune shielding pathway is a highly conserved polysaccharide, dPSA (de-N-acetyl-polysialic acid), expressed during fetal development, present on some human pathogens, and re-expressed specifically on cancer cells. Cell surface dPSA in cancer depends on re-expression of a fetal gene coding for the polysialyltransferase enzyme that produces polysialic acid. dPSA modified nucleolin is highly and specifically expressed in cancer.
ASSOCIATION WITH NUCLEOLIN
Saccharo has shown that dPSA is linked to or associated with a nuclear protein, nucleolin*, that can be found on the surface of cancer cells but not normal cells. The functional role of nucleolin on cancer cells has been unclear but research at Saccharo is beginning to uncover critical linkages between cell surface nucleolin and dPSA which may serve to define novel points of intervention in the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic cancers.
UNMET MEDICAL NEED-ADVANTAGE FOR PATIENTS
THE PROBLEM
Existing cancer drug targets are typically protein enriched, but not uniquely expressed on cancer cells. The lack of cancer specificity can result in off-target toxicity and damaging side effects. Additionally, patients can develop resistance to treatment because the protein target mutates, rendering the drug ineffective.
Key advantages of Saccharo’s unique polysaccharide target (dPSA):
Likely conserved – may avoid drug resistance
Broadly expressed in cancer – unlike many other targets
Highly expressed – many copies/cell due to chain having >1 epitope
Present in primary as well as metastatic tumors
Only sparingly present in normal tissues vs. HER2, Trop2 etc. (& data suggests this is not a concern)
Compelling preclinical data show ADCs to target give efficacy
PIPELINE
Saccharo is advancing promising high affinity antibody lead drug candidates generated from the anti-dPSA platform with demonstrated unique targeting properties. In addition, multi-modality drug formats, and diagnostic screening applications are under development.
Saccharo’s development pipeline is based on the dPSA platform to exploit the unique properties of the dPSA molecule to optimize binding to a range of cancer types. Antibody candidates can be developed in multiple formats depending on the cancer indication. Saccharo’s final development candidate SAC-253 ADC is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with potential for broad oncology application.
SACCHARO’S TEAM
Saccharo’s leadership team is composed of distinguished experts with extensive drug development experience in cancer and other diseases from Genentech, Novartis, Amgen, Bayer and other research institutions.
Sherry Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO & President, Founder
Greg Moe, PhD
CSO, Inventor, Co-Founder
Corine Dietz-Muegge, MBA
HEAD, Business Development
Margaret Kim, MBA
CFO
DRUG PROGRAM
Leonard Post, PhD
CSO Vivance, BioMarin I SVP Onyx | VP Parke-Davis
Gideon Bollag, PhD
CEO Opna, Plexxikon (Daiichi-Sankyo)
MEDICAL
Pamela Klein, MD
VP Genentech I Director NCI
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Len Presta, PhD
Dir. Tech., Genentech | Distinguished Fellow, Merck
Jude Canon, PhD
SVP MycRx, Director Research Amgen
David Cheresh, PhD
Distinguished Prof. Pathology, UCSD
CMC
Anthony Haight, PhD, consultant
Distinguished Fellow, AbbVie/Abbott
Susan Hershenson, PhD
Director Gates Foundation I VP Genentech, Amgen
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY
Marque Todd, DVM, MS, DABT
Lead Pfizer | Amgen I Chiron
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sheryl Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO, Founder & President
Greg Moe, PhD
CSO & Co-founder
Winnie Wan, PhD, MBA
Executive Advisor | Serial CEO
CONTACT US
Sheryl Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO/Founder & President
510-219-6741
© Saccharo Inc. 2022