West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States
Prodigy is the first company to join the MSK Therapeutic Accelerator. The accelerator program launch was announced at the MSK Life Sciences Innovation Summit in New York City on January 26, 2024.
Prodigy and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) will co-develop a product targeting Enterococcus sp. to treat microbial dysbiosis in patients undergoing allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The product will be built on Prodigy’s polyclonal Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) technology that has shown promising preclinical data in models of alcoholic liver disease.
Prodigy and MSK have entered into a sponsored research agreement through the MSK Therapeutics Accelerator program to evaluate Prodigy’s product candidate for the improvement of outcomes in patients undergoing allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT). The MSK Therapeutic Accelerator project will be led by Jonathan Peled, MD, PhD, Assistant Attending Physician, MSK.
Through his pioneering research, Dr. Peled and his team at MSK have significantly advanced the role of the microbiome in impacting outcomes in patients undergoing allo-HCT. Dr. Peled’s work revealed that patients undergoing allo-HCT have enterococcal domination events and these domination events lead to worse overall survival and higher graft vs. host disease (GvHD)-related mortality. Dr. Peled has previously demonstrated in preclinical models that resetting the gut microbiome has profound outcomes in mitigating disease severity.
In this collaboration, Prodigy’s Enterococcus sp. neutralizing antibodies will be evaluated in preclinical models of GvHD and product candidates will be developed to move into clinical development. Furthermore, Prodigy is pleased to have Dr. Peled join and help build its allo-HCT Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
In addition to the sponsored research, MSK will provide expertise and institutional resources through the MSK Therapeutics Accelerator to aid in the development of a drug candidate for patients undergoing allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. MSK’s Therapeutic Accelerator Program is a partnership program between MSK and technology and pharmaceutical companies to advance novel therapeutics through all stages of drug development. The program brings together innovative healthcare companies with MSK’s community of clinical and scientific experts to establish groundbreaking collaborations that can have a tangible impact on treatment or management of cancer.
Satish Chandran, CEO of Prodigy said, “We are delighted to collaborate and partner with MSK’s Therapeutic Accelerator Program and Dr. Peled to develop product(s) for patients undergoing allo-HCT. Given the significant morbidity and mortality associated with the disease, it is incumbent upon all of us to find solutions that have the potential to save lives and restore normalcy to these patients. We have been very pleased with the robust preclinical proof-of-concept data of our product PROD-AH-001, (Hepatology, 2023) for alcoholic hepatitis which is currently being readied for an IND submission with the FDA.”
Dr. Jonathan Peled of MSK said, “Patients who are treated with allo-HCT experience the most extreme microbiome injuries observed in any clinical setting. There is an urgent need to develop approaches that can mitigate this and prevent the expansion of potentially pathogenic bacteria. We hypothesize that attenuating the expansion of Enterococcus within the gastrointestinal tract will prevent bloodstream infections with this bacterium and potentially also ameliorate GVHD.”
Dr. Chandran presented information about this important new collaboration at the MSK Life Sciences Innovation Summit in New York City on January 26, 2024.
About Allogenic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Allo-HCTs have a chance to cure malignancies but are associated with high rate of complications and mortality. Allo-HCT can lead to various complications, affecting different organs due to the intense conditioning regimen and introduction of foreign immune cells. A significant concern after allo-HCT is graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), where the donor’s immune cells mount an attack against the recipient and is a major cause of morbidity and non-relapse mortality in this patient population. There is a clear need of therapies that are able to improve outcomes in patients undergoing allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
About Prodigy Biotech, Inc.
Prodigy Biotech is a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products using its polyclonal Immunoglobulin Y technology to selectively edit the microbiome while avoiding deleterious effects to the commensal microflora. The versatility of avian antibodies, IgY, allows for pathogen- specific neutralization capabilities not only to bacteria but also viruses, fungi, endotoxins, and even human secreted proteins such as cytokines and chemokines. A target agnostic approach and strategic collaborations with leading researchers in the microbiome field has allowed Prodigy to build a diverse pipeline ranging from modulating the gut microbiome in alcoholic liver disease (ALD) to modulating the lung microbiome in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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