We notice 48Hour Discovery has teamed up with AdvanCell to support the Australian company's work on radiotherapeutic alpha therapies to treat cancer. AdvanCell, which opened its first North American office in the Boston area in November, will leverage 48Hour Discovery's peptide discovery platform to develop the therapies, beginning with a focus on gastrointestinal cancer. "We see this program as an important validation of our discovery engine in the radioligand therapy space," said Rick Finnegan, 48Hour Discovery's Boston-based CEO, in a news release. "Importantly, this agreement is one of several partnerships we have entered into recently with companies developing radioligand therapies, and together they highlight the versatility of our platform across this rapidly growing modality."
Radioligand therapies are cancer drugs that pair a targeting molecule with a radioactive isotope so the medicine seeks out specific markers on tumour cells and delivers radiation right to them. 48Hour Discovery's peptide discovery platform, in its simplest terms, rapidly shortens the time it takes for drug development leads. It combines vast phage libraries, chemical modification, advanced screening methods, and more. The company, founded by Ratmir Derda, is a University of Alberta spinoff that has received funding from the CQDM Quantum Leap program and Glyconet, as well as Startup TNT and the Edmonton Edge Fund.
As its name implies, 48Hour is focused on drug discovery, but the company is part of a growing life sciences sector that also focuses on drug manufacturing. Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation expects to complete its Critical Medicines Production Centre this year, funded in part by the nearly $200-million Canadian Critical Drug Initiative that it runs in partnership with the U of A.