“Protein Degrader” Drugs Show Promise in Treating Cancer
Major pharmaceutical companies are developing a new approach to fighting cancer: “protein degraders,” which use a cell’s own recycling system to destroy proteins that cause disease (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).
The research: Companies like Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Roche are investing billions developing the drugs, while the Food and Drug Administration has already approved several protein degraders for cancers affecting relatively small patient populations.
- “Around 200 protein degraders are being studied worldwide, with more than $5 billion in deals for these drugs from 2021 to 2026, according to biopharma-intelligence service Sleuth.”
The drugs: “The first degrader to hit the market is Veppanu, a breast-cancer drug developed by Pfizer and Arvinas. The therapy, which was approved in May, works in patients with a specific genetic mutation called ESR1 who have failed hormone therapy, which represents around 1% of all newly diagnosed breast-cancer patients globally.”
- Bristol Myers Squibb’s protein degrader Zenbexus, when combined with two existing treatments, extended the time patients with multiple myeloma lived without their cancer worsening from 20 to 42 months in clinical trials.
- Another Bristol Myers Squibb drug, mezigdomide, extended the time patients with the same cancer lived without disease progression from eight to 18 months, when combined with other treatments in clinical trials.
Beyond cancer: Pharmaceutical companies are also exploring protein degraders as potential treatments for Parkinson’s disease, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy and autoimmune disorders, including asthma and atopic dermatitis.
