Company Spotlight: Valink Therapeutics

Valink Therapeutics is at the forefront of developing bispecific antibody drug conjugates (bsADCs). Can you explain what makes bsADCs unique and how they are revolutionising cancer treatment?

Bispecific ADCs can leverage properties from two targets to achieve superior outcomes compared to monospecific ADCs. While there is strong interest in the field in overcoming heterogeneity or achieving cancer-specific target overlap, we are particularly excited about leveraging synergy between two targets to improve ADC efficacy.

What are the biggest challenges in developing effective cancer treatments, and how is Valink Therapeutics addressing these challenges through your technology and approach?

bsADC combine the challenges of two orthogonal complex modalities in their discovery - at the same time, the landscape of drug design is expanded by another dimension, and drug conjugation is required to observe bsADC performance. Instead of pre-screening of bispecific antibodies with high false-positive rates, we use a proprietary toolbox approach to generate 1,000s of bsADCs and directly assess function. This lets us evaluate target pairings no one else can access to find novel synergies for bsADCs.

How does Valink Therapeutics approach the discovery and development process to ensure that your treatments are tailored to different types of cancer?

We discover synergy in target pairings from a broad range of targets. To do so, we build our programs from the ground up, tailoring selection of potential targets to the indications we are interested in. We then find synergies in the combinatorial pool of target pairings to build our bsADCs. Once identified, we evaluate bsADC positioning for another time to place the bsADCs in their most suitable cancer indication(s).

What role does collaboration and investment play in advancing your mission, and what do you believe investors should understand about the potential of bsADCs in oncology?

bsADCs are just beginning - the modality is now showing first clinical promise and attracting substantial interest and investment. We have the world’s only platform capable of testing true diversity of complex biologics - and have already demonstrated our ability to find rare bsADCs with unique synergistic properties. Our existing investors as well as prospective investors are key to advancing our drug assets; while collaborations and codevelopment opportunities let us leverage the full potential of our discovery platform in bsADC and beyond.

Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of cancer treatment and the role Valink Therapeutics will play in shaping that future?

Our existing programs and capabilities for ongoing discovery let us redefine the narrative of what can be achieved with bsADCs in cancer treatment - letting us target previously untreatable patients, and ultimately broadening the scope of ADCs as a whole.

Find out more at: www.valinktx.com