Sentrimed is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company creating safer, orally dosed oncology therapies that target podoplanin (PDPN). PDPN is a transmembrane glycoprotein receptor that enables cancer cells to proliferate and migrate. This prognostic biomarker appears early in cancer transformation, persists through malignant progression, and causes poor clinical outcomes. As a result, targeting PDPN could represent an important advancement in treating and profiling cancer.
The Company’s lead product candidate, MASL® (lenipagrusin alfa), is an orally administered therapeutic that inhibits PDPN receptor activity. MASL represents a novel approach to addressing common challenges in oncology treatments that contribute to rapid and frequent recurrence and poor patient outcomes. Blocking PDPN with MASL inhibits cancer by altering pathways critical to tumor growth, invasion, evasion, and resistance. Additionally, MASL triggers necrotic cell death, and stimulates host anti-tumor immune responses.
MASL has the potential to treat various stages and types of cancer, many having large populations of PDPN positive patients. Research to date shows that MASL is well-tolerated and may be suitable for early and advanced stage cancers. An NIH funded human signal trial was recently completed and published supporting the continued development of MASL. Sentrimed is advancing clinical studies to evaluate MASL as a monotherapy and with standard of care treatments. The Company plans to initially study MASL in head and neck cancer, a disease with high rates of recurrence, limited therapeutic options, and a high prevalence of PDPN positive patients.
Sentrimed is developing a dynamic pipeline based on the seminal research of our scientific team. Sentrimed founder Dr. Gary Goldberg has been performing internationally recognized research on cell-to-cell communication and podoplanin for decades.
