Lavinia Woodward: Beyond Cancer – ADCs and Emerging Drug Conjugates
Lavinia Woodward, Senior Product Development Producer at Beacon, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Beyond Cancer: ADCs and Emerging Drug Conjugates
With 15 FDA-approved ADCs and 1,304 in active development for oncology indications, the real opportunity lies beyond cancer, where rapid growth is just beginning.
Drug conjugates limit toxic drugs to target tissues, increasing efficacy while reducing systemic exposure.
Key therapeutic areas emerging:
Autoimmune diseases (RA, lupus, psoriasis, UC, scleroderma): ADCs offer targeted alternatives to broad immunosuppression.
– ABBV-3373 (adalimumab + glucocorticoid) beat adalimumab in Phase IIa rheumatoid arthritis (DAS28-CRP -2.65 vs -2.13, p=0.022).
– Is this our ‘Kadcyla moment’ for non-oncology?
Infectious diseases: 30 active immunotoxin programs addressing antimicrobial resistance.
Neurological disorders:
– siRNA payloads for muscular disorders/myasthenia gravis.
– Targeting amyloid-beta/tau in Alzheimer’s.
– AC Immune’s morADC: brain-penetrant Morphomers + SupraAntigen antibodies.
Metabolic disorders: Atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity—massive chronic disease markets.
Capital follows the science:
– Lifordi Immunotherapeutics, Inc. $70M Series A (ARCH, 5AM, Atlas)
– Santa Ana Bio, Inc. Bio: $168M total (Versant, TPG, GV)
Critical challenges:
Technical: Non-cytotoxic payload selection, target specificity, manufacturing complexity.
Commercial: Cost vs generics, regulatory uncertainty (FDA guidance “might not apply”), limited precedent.
Future catalysts (2025-2028):
– First non-oncology approvals.
– Platform expansion across autoimmune conditions.
– Repertoire of novel payloads beyond gene silencers, immunomodulators, tissue-repair factors.
– Combination therapies (ADCs + JAKi/biologics).
– Tech advances: bispecific ADCs, conditional activation, oral formulations, AI-driven targets.
The challenges are real, but so is the opportunity: better drugs for millions of patients in multi-billion dollar chronic disease markets.
What’s the bigger hurdle: finding disease-specific targets or developing chronic-use payloads?
Data sourced from Beacon (July 2025).”
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