| Endocyte | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Traded As: | NASDAQ: |
| Key People: | Mike Sherman, |
| Industry: | Biopharmaceutical |
| Num Employees: | 78 |
| Parent: | Novartis |
| Location City: | West Lafayette, Indiana |
| Location Country: | United States |
Endocyte (NASDAQ: ECYT) is a biopharmaceutical company established in 1996 and headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana,[1] a resident of the Purdue Research Park. In 2011 the company completed successfully an initial public offering (IPO).[2], the company had 93 employees.[1] The original president and CEO, Ron Ellis,[1] was succeeded by Mike Sherman, who held a CFO position at the company before this change in June 2016. In 2018 the company was acquired by Novartis.[3]
Endocyte is advancing the first technology platform for the creation of small molecule drug conjugates (a.k.a. SMDCs), which consist of a small molecule linked to a potent drug, and is developing a pipeline of SMDCs together with non-invasive companion imaging agents for cancer, inflammatory diseases and kidney disease (autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease/ADPKDor PKD).[1] [4] Endocyte’s lead drug candidate is vintafolide, an investigational targeted cancer therapeutic in late-stage development. In 2012 marketing rights were acquired by Merck for $120 million in an upfront payment and up to $880 million in milestone payments.[5] Vintafolide is a small molecule drug conjugate consisting of a small molecule targeting the folate receptor, which is expressed on many cancers, such as ovarian cancer, and a potent chemotherapy drug, a derivative of vinblastine.[1] Endocyte retained rights to the development and commercialization of etarfolatide.[5]
Endocyte’s other preclinical drug candidates also target the folate receptor as well as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) receptors.[1] The company was formed based on technology developed by Philip Low (the company's CSO), and Christopher Leamon, PhD, the company’s VP of research. This technology is a folic acid-based drug delivery system,[1] referred to now as folate targeting.[6] The company is also developing SMDCs with varying drug payloads as well as different ligands for other molecular targets, such as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and has also developed, with Bristol-Myers Squibb, an epothilone-folic acid conjugate (BMS-753493), described at a 2008 conference.[7]
In mid-October 2018, Novartis announced it would acquire Endocyte Inc for $2.1 billion ($24 per share) merging it with a newly created subsidiary.[8] [9] Endocyte will bolster Novartis' offering in its radiopharmaceuticals business, with Endocyte's first in class candidate 177Lu-PSMA-617 being targeted against metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.[10]