eBook: ADC Advances — Leveraging Classical and Emerging Technologies

Between 2000 and 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved only four antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) products for commercial distribution. Between then and 2024, however, the number of marketed ADC products has swelled to 13, and clinical studies are underway for more than 100 candidates that address nearly 40 indications, mostly in oncology. Recent successes might seem to have come suddenly considering the previous dearth of approvals. But drug companies in the ADC space have worked steadily both to improve available linker chemistries and conjugation methods and to devise new methods and materials. Equally important is that current developers have been able to draw from a deep well of institutional knowledge about what methods and materials would work best for a given antibody and payload.

This eBook presents interviews with two pharmaceutical executives to survey the current ADC landscape and imagine future pathways for discovery and development activities. First comes a discussion with David Dornan (chief scientific officer of ADC developer Elevation Oncology). He explains how recent technological advances have enabled the ADC sector to optimize linkers and payloads, renewing interest in targets that were promising but difficult to reach using classical methods and materials. The result has been a kind of renaissance for the space. Dornan also describes key considerations for ADC development and imagines possibilities for future programs. Picking up that thread, the eBook presents a discussion with Christopher Nasveschuk (senior vice president of chemistry at C4 Therapeutics), to learn about new possibilities for ADC payloads. C4 Therapeutics engineers and develops small-molecule protein degraders for oncology indications. Nasveschuk describes how such molecules could be linked with antibodies to provide clinicians with new therapeutic options, enabling personalized approaches to cancer treatment. Together, Dornan’s and Nasveschuk’s remarks show how combining classical and emerging ADC technologies will bring new hope to cancer patients.