Technology and Product Portfolio
We developed and project to develop further a portfolio of proprietary biotherapeutics where drugs will be entrapped inside engineered human ferritins (HFts) and delivered to specific cancer sites reducing drastically non-specific side effects. HFt is a physiological protein that has high solubility and stability in blood as well as low toxicity and has per se the ability to effectively bind virtually all types of cancer cells (i.e. liver, lung, colon, pancreas, cervical, ovarian, prostate, leukemia, lymphoma, brain, breast and sarcoma) using CD71 receptor-mediated endocytosis. CD71 is also expressed in metastatic disease.
In addition, HFt can efficiently entrap more drug molecules inside its cavity (40-120 mol/mol, depending from the drug) in comparison to different commonly used carriers like the human serum albumin (1-3 mol/mol) or antibody-drug conjugates (1-5 mol/mol) systems.
Thena biotech has developed and patented novel HFt variants together with scientists at the Italian National Research Council (CNR). These variants contain a masking polypeptide that improves both the drug encapsulation ability and the bloodstream permanence in comparison to the native HFts, allowing them to largely accumulate in tumors where the drug payload is released.
In particular, this HFt-based system was designed to be relatively inactive versus non-cancer cells during blood circulation, and subsequently can be activated by multiple proteases in the tumor microenvironment where the therapeutic cargo must be released. In this way damage to healthy cells is limited.
Therapeutic Pipeline
Pipeline at a glance
Candidate
Laboratory Phase
Regulatory pre-clinical (IND)
Clinical Phase
The-0501 is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug under development by Thena biotech. It is based on one of our proprietary H-ferritin variant containing a topoisomerase II inhibitor drug.
The-0502 is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug under development by Thena biotech. It is based on one of our proprietary H-ferritin variant containing a topoisomerase II inhibitor drug.
The-0504 is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug under development by Thena biotech. It is based on one of our proprietary H-ferritin variant containing a topoisomerase I inhibitor drug.
The-050401 is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug under development by Thena biotech. It is based on one of our proprietary H-ferritin variant containing a combination of two drugs, a topoisomerase I and II inhibitors.
The-050402 is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug under development by Thena biotech. It is based on one of our proprietary H-ferritin variant containing a combination of two drugs, a topoisomerase I and II inhibitors.
Drug Development Process
Thena biotech will act between drug preclinical development and the expensive clinical trials of pharmaceutical companies. Thena biotech will access to a worldwide network of contacts within medical centers of excellence, biotechnology, and CMOs to enable drug validation and development.
Intellectual Property
The ferritin-based platform and pipeline of ferritin therapeutics are based on a robust portfolio of intellectual property and patented technology. Thena biotech will file for new patents, support the world-wide patent coverage, prosecution and maintenance of issued and provisional patents as well as patent applications.