Industry Biotechnology Founded 2003 | Website sutrobio.com Type of business Private | |
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Headquarters South San Francisco, California, United States Profiles | ||
Biopharamceutical development and production week 2014 dr trevor j hallam sutro biopharma
Sutro Biopharma is a private biopharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco that develops antibody-drug conjugate and multi-specific antibody-based therapeutics for cancer therapy. Founded in 2003 under the name Fundamental Applied Biology, the company name changed to Sutro Biopharma in 2009. The current CEO, William Newell, joined Sutro in January 2009. Newell has over 15 years of senior management experience in the biotechnology industry, and has worked for companies such as Aerovance, QLT, Inc., and Ayxs Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sutro’s CFO, Edward Albini, previously worked at Itero Biopharmaceuticals, Novacea, and Lynx Therapeutics. The CSO, Trevor Hallam, formerly worked at Palatin Technologies, AstraZeneca, Glaxo Group Research, and Roche Research Centre. The company received $26M in Series D funding in December 2013. The company’s investors include Alta Partners, Skyline Ventures, SV Life Sciences, Lilly Ventures, Amgen Ventures and Celgene.
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Toni kline director of chemistry sutro biopharma
Technology
Sutro's Xpress CF and Xpress CF+ technologies are based on Stanford Professor James R. Swartz's patented Open Cell-Free Synthesis (OCFS) technology. The platform allows the parallel expression of hundreds of protein variants, including those incorporating non-natural amino acids, in as little as two weeks. Sutro’s cell-free expression technology provides a platform for the discovery and development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Once identified, production of protein drug candidates can be scaled in Sutro’s cGMP manufacturing facility located in San Carlos, CA. Importantly, Xpress CF was nominated for best scientific innovation by World ADC in 2014 and Sutro Biopharma was named one of FierceBiotech’s Fierce 15 in 2014.
Collaborations
In 2012 Sutro formed a collaboration with Celgene worth over $500 million, if all programs are successful to design and develop ADCs and bispecific antibodies for two undisclosed targets as well as manufacture a proprietary Celgene antibody using the company’s technology platform. The company has also formed a collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur for the development of undisclosed vaccine candidates. and a multi-year collaboration with Pfizer for the research, development and commercialization of peptide-based therapeutics. In 2014 Sutro entered into a collaboration with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to produce four different bispecific antibodies that are discovered by MSKCC for the treatment of neuroblastoma in children using Sutro's technology. The bispecific monoclonal antibodies will be directed against CD3 on T-cells and, as the second target, against the ganglioside GD2, which is expressed on the surface of human neuroblastoma cells, as well as in melanoma and osteosarcoma. In May 2014, Sutro signed a License and Agreement with EnWave Corporation. The company licensed EnWave’s Radiant Energy Vacuum technology to dehydrate cell-free extracts, which will facilitate both storage and shipping of extract for use in development and commercialization of Sutro products. Also in 2014, Sutro partnered with both Celgene and EMD Serono. This second partnership with Celgene is a multi-year collaboration focused on immuno-oncology and is valued at over $1 Billion . In the agreement, Celgene has an exclusive option to acquire Sutro. The deal with EMD Serono is a $300M+ collaboration to discover and develop novel antibody-drug conjugates for several targets in the field of oncology.