Alloy Therapeutics, a biotechnology ecosystem company, announced the launch of its novel AntiClastic™ Antisense Oligonucleotide (AntiClastic ASO) platform, which employs optimally created spatial conformation nucleic acids that further enhance the drug-like properties of antisense. Alloy has exclusively licensed IP underlying the AntiClastic ASO platform from Sudhir Agrawal’s Arnay Sciences LLC.
Antisense therapeutics hold promise for reaching many undruggable intracellular targets at the nucleic acid level but have been limited due to therapeutic index and delivery challenges. Alloy’s AntiClastic ASO platform combines improvements in the primary sequence with a novel spatial conformation of nucleic acid drugs. The resultant AntiClastic ASO candidates have improved potency, promote the delivery of antisense to target RNA, and minimize interactions with unintended RNA targets and the inflammatory responses—for a superior therapeutic index. This platform is broadly applicable to treat diseases by targeting genes expressed in the central nervous system (CNS), liver, muscles, ocular, and more.
“The AntiClastic format has the potential to transform the development of antisense therapeutics,” said Agrawal. “Alloy’s model of making pre-competitive discovery technologies widely available to drug developers through accessible terms and an ecosystem mindset means this technology can reach the widest possible audience of patients—rather than staying locked up under one company and accessible to a limited set of therapeutic programs.”
Drug developers can access the novel AntiClastic ASO format by collaborating on their desired target or by providing existing antisense sequences to be converted into AntiClastic molecules. All collaborative campaigns receive Alloy’s discovery support and preclinical data and leverage Alloy’s flexible research and partnership terms based on a shared success model.
In launching the AntiClastic ASO platform, Alloy is expanding into its third biologic modality, genetic medicines. The company started by making its ATX-Gx™ transgenic humanized mice platform for antibody discovery widely available to the global scientific community through campaigns with Alloy’s Antibody Discovery Services or for use in partner’s respective labs. The platform has since accrued more than 150 partners and has provided the framework for how Alloy makes pre-competitive technologies available to drug developers everywhere. It launched Keyway™ TCR Discovery to democratize technologies and expertise for developing soluble TCR therapeutics and TCR mimics against intracellular targets. Alloy’s genetic medicines group is led by Vinod Vathipadiekal, PhD, who has held research leadership roles across RNA and nucleic acid therapeutics programs at biotech and pharma companies. Over the last year, Alloy has generated promising data on applying the AntiClastic technology to multiple antisense drug candidates against many relevant targets, enabling discovery collaborations with partners.
“Alloy is executing successfully against an ambitious roadmap in applying the AntiClastic platform and has developed a powerful model of collaboration and innovation with premier inventors like Sudhir,” said Alloy President Piotr Bobrowicz, PhD. “In offering an advanced, novel set of discovery capabilities across modalities, we aim to provide the global scientific community with the tools and expertise needed to advance the best drugs, regardless of format.”
In conjunction with the launch of its AntiClastic ASO platform, Alloy is also revealing its genetic medicines scientific advisory board (SAB), a group of leading thinkers across immunology, RNA- and nucleic acid-based therapeutics, rare disease, and bioinformatics who will guide further development of the platform
Douglas Golenbock, MD—Neil and Margery Blacklow Chair in Infectious Diseases and Immunology at UMass Chan Medical School—and a pioneering researcher in innate immunity, Toll-like receptor (TLR) biology, and the inflammasome.
Frank Slack, PhD—Shields Warren Mallinckrodt Professor, Department of Pathology, and Director of the Institute for RNA Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—who has spent decades researching and re-thinking small RNA gene regulation capabilities.
Malcolm MacCoss, PhD—Visiting Professor of Chemistry for Medicine at Oxford University—with decades of expertise in novel chemistries for nucleoside and nucleic acid-based therapeutic approaches through research roles at Merck and Schering Plough, as well as SAB or consultant positions at Idera, Gilead, UCB, and Sitryx, among others.
Matt Might, PhD—Professor and Director of the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham—whose expertise spans precision medicine leveraging novel bioinformatic techniques and developing therapies for rare diseases.
“We are grateful that the best minds and innovators in genetic and precision medicine and the disease areas that can benefit from it have coalesced around this exciting platform and new modality at Alloy,” said Errik Anderson, Alloy Therapeutics CEO and Founder. “Our model of co-creating pre-competitive technologies and making them as widely available as possible means more patients will be able to benefit from new, potent antisense therapeutics for previously intractable conditions.”
About Alloy Therapeutics
Alloy Therapeutics is a biotechnology ecosystem company empowering the global scientific community to make better medicines together. Through a community of partners across academia, biotech, and the largest biopharma, Alloy democratizes access to pre-competitive tools, technologies, services, and company creation capabilities that are foundational for discovering and developing therapeutic biologics across six modalities: antibodies, TCRs, genetic medicines, peptides, cell therapies, and drug delivery. Partners may access all current and future technologies through a discovery service relationship or for a flat annual fee through Alloy’s Innovation Subscriptions offering. As a reflection of Alloy’s relentless commitment to the scientific community, Alloy reinvests 100% of its revenue in innovation and access to innovation.
About AntiClastic™ Antisense Oligonucleotides
AntiClastic™ Antisense Oligonucleotides (AntiClastic ASOs) are a novel therapeutic format exclusively available through Alloy Therapeutics collaborations that are designed to overcome potency and therapeutic index challenges that have historically limited the promise of antisense drugs. Sudhir Agrawal invented the core IP, which combines improvements in the primary sequence with a novel spatial conformation of nucleic acid drugs to promote the delivery of antisense to target RNA, mitigate the inflammatory response, and improve a drug’s therapeutic index. The resultant drug candidates have shown a significant increase in potency compared to gapmer antisense formats.