102863Antibody Fragment Drug Conjugates - Overcoming the challenge in treating Gastric CancerClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKAntikor Biopharma is pioneering an innovative drug delivery platform called OptiLink. It harnesses the immune system by using tumour-seeking antibodies to specifically deliver potent cytotoxic payloads to tumours. Unlike its competitors, who use full antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), Antikor’s technology enables much smaller fragment-drug conjugates (FDCs) to be developed. These have many advantages: FDC products potentially have a higher therapeutic index for cancer therapy as they are more potent, can be dosed more aggressively because they clear from normal tissues more quickly and penetrate rapidly and deeply into tumours enabling faster tumour destruction. Antikor is developing an FDC for gastric cancer which promises to overcome the challenges in treating this disease. This project entails the discovery and manufacture of a number of candidates, based on existing, compelling proof-of-concept data, with in vitro and in vivo analyses in human tumour models of gastric cancer, to lead to a candidate that can be taken into clinical development.