Tarveda To Present On Lead Intracellular Targeting Pentarin PEN-866 At 2017 American Association Of Pharmaceutical Scientists National Biotechnology Conference

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tarveda Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing Pentarins™ as a new class of potent and selective cancer medicines, today announced that Dr. Mark Bilodeau, PhD, Senior Vice President of Chemistry, will present data on PEN-866, the company’s second Pentarin™ drug candidate which targets the intracellular protein HSP90, at the 2017 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) National Biotechnology Conference, occurring May 1-3 at the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina in San Diego, CA. The presentation, titled “Exploiting the preferential accumulation of HSP90-targeting ligands in tumors to selectively deliver anti-cancer payloads” will take place from 10:40am – 11:10am PST on Monday, May 1^st 2017 in the ‘Hot Topic’ session Inaugurating a New Era in Cancer Treatment—Intracellular Delivery.

“Exploiting the preferential accumulation of HSP90-targeting ligands in tumors to selectively deliver anti-cancer payloads”

“Dr. Bilodeau’s presentation at AAPS continues to showcase our growing expertise in identifying and developing our Pentarins, potent and selective miniaturized drug conjugates that safely and effectively target anti-cancer payloads to solid tumors,” said Drew Fromkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tarveda. “The presentation will highlight our lead intracellular targeting conjugate, PEN-866, that binds to the intracellular target HSP90. In a broad range of tumor xenograft and patient-derived tumor models, PEN-866 demonstrated accumulation and retention of its potent payload SN-38 leading to cancer cell death and efficacy, which was clearly superior to that which was seen with irinotecan. We are excited about the prospects of PEN-866 and the potential to leverage our HSP90 franchise to enhance the performace of a number of high value payloads that have struggled to achieve efficacy in patients as single agents.”

PEN-866, which is designed to treat patients with solid tumor cancers including colorectal cancer, small cell lung cancer and sarcoma, is scheduled to enter the clinic in 2017 via a Phase 1/2a trial initially focused in patients with Topo-1 Inhibitor sensitive solid tumors. More information on PEN-866 can be found at www.tarveda.com.

About Pentarins™
Tarveda is developing Pentarins, potent and selective miniaturized drug conjugates with high affinity for specific cell surface and intracellular targets. Pentarins are engineered to bind to their tumor cell targets and provide sustained release of their potent therapeutic payloads deep into solid tumor tissue. Comprised of a targeting ligand conjugated to a potent cell-killing agent through an optimized chemical linker, Pentarins are designed to overcome the deficits of both larger antibody drug conjugates and small molecules that limit their therapeutic effectiveness against solid tumors. Together, the components of Tarveda’s Pentarins have distinct, yet synergistic, anticancer attributes: the small size of Pentarins allows for effective penetration and distribution into the tumor tissue, the ligand’s targeting ability allows for specific binding and retention in tumor cells, and the chemical linker is tuned to optimize the release of the potent, cell-killing payload inside the cancer cells for efficacy.

About Tarveda Therapeutics
Tarveda Therapeutics, Inc. discovers and develops Pentarins™, a new class of potent and selective miniaturized drug conjugates with enhanced targeting capabilities for the treatment of solid cancer tumors. Tarveda’s lead Pentarin drug candidate, PEN-221, is a miniaturized drug conjugate that targets the somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) for treatment of patients with neuroendocrine and small cell lung cancers. PEN-221 comprises a highly selective peptide that targets SSTR2 linked to the potent cytotoxic DM1 through a cleavable linker. Tarveda is also advancing its miniaturized HSP90 drug conjugate platform with lead candidate PEN-866, which comprises a small molecule HSP90 targeting ligand conjugated to SN-38, the highly potent, active metabolite of irinotecan. Tarveda’s strategy includes developing its own proprietary Pentarins as well as applying the Pentarin platform to enhance the effectiveness of the targeting moieties and novel payloads of its pharmaceutical collaborators. www.tarveda.com