The Golden Ticket: Sanofi, Meditope initiate research collaboration to explore bioconjugation tech
Meditope Biosciences is a Pasadena, CA-based biotechnology company developing novel antibody-based cancer products using its proprietary bioconjugation technology, SnAP (Site-specific novel Antibody Platform).
The Golden Ticket program is an award program developed by BioLabs, a membership-based network of shared laboratory facilities. As a Biolabs gold sponsor, Sanofi is given a so-called “Golden Ticket” to award at its discretion.
Stephanie Hsieh, Meditope CEO, said the purpose of the program is to nurture the development of such a company housed in one of Biolabs’ innovation clusters.
“Sanofi recognized the potential of Meditope’s SnAP technology to create new antibody-based therapeutic constructs,” she told us.
With the Golden Ticket, Sanofi will support further development of Meditope and its technology, Hsieh said. It also provides Sanofi access to Meditope’s platform and enables the collaborative evaluation of various programs across different therapeutic areas.
“This is the start of a research collaboration between Sanofi and Meditope to leverage Meditope’s SnAP as a bioconjugation platform and evaluate multiple programs across multiple targets,” Hsieh explained.
Meditope will use the bioconjugation technology to conduct preclinical evaluation programs at a BioLabs facility in San Diego.
Hsieh said the platform “allows for the capability of adding limitless functionality to any monoclonal antibody to create an array of new products anywhere an antibody is used.”
The technology has implications “anywhere an antibody is used” by potentially creating more efficacious therapeutics, reducing drug development costs, and creating more sensitive diagnostics and imaging tools, she explained.
“This technology has the potential to change the landscape of disease management and treatment,” she added, “enhancing patients’ quality of life through more effective therapeutics, earlier detection and better monitoring of disease progression all with reduced side effects.”
Meditope is pursuing “a comprehensive partnering strategy” to leverage the SnAP technology, according to the company.