The startup develops immunotherapeutics that utilize immune agonists to enhance tumor immunogenicity while minimizing systemic inflammation. This approach provides patients with effective treatment options for cancer and infectious diseases, addressing the need for targeted therapies with reduced side effects.
Funding
$30M raised to dateRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
Founders
Product
Problem
Systemic administration of innate immune agonists often leads to poor tolerability and immune tolerance, limiting their effectiveness in cancer and infectious disease treatment. Intratumoral injections offer localized activation but are limited in scope and practicality. This necessitates methods that can achieve localized innate immune activation without the limitations of systemic or direct injection approaches.
Solution
Apros Therapeutics is developing tissue-targeted small molecule innate immune agonists designed to increase tumor immunogenicity by converting immunologically cold tumors to hot tumors. Their chemistry-based platform delivers agonists specifically to the target tissue, for the appropriate duration, and at the right dose, with minimal systemic distribution. By achieving localized activation of toll-like receptors (TLRs), the approach aims to provide effective immune priming while minimizing systemic inflammation, potentially uncoupling efficacy from toxicity. This localized innate immune priming can lead to systemic adaptive immunity against cancer or viral antigens.
Target Audience
The primary target audience includes patients with cancer and infectious diseases, as well as researchers and clinicians seeking more effective and targeted immunotherapeutic options.
Features
- Tissue-targeted chemistry to deliver innate immune agonists to specific tissues.
- Small molecule and protein bioconjugation approaches for drug development.
- Conditional activation/deactivation mechanisms for precise control of agonist activity.
- Novel delivery technologies to overcome limitations of intratumoral injections.
- TLR7 agonists designed to increase tumor antigenicity and promote inflammation within the tumor microenvironment.
- Programs in discovery, candidate selection, IND-enabling studies, and Phase 1 clinical trials.
- APR003: Oral TLR7 agonist targeting GI/Liver Cancer and HBV (Phase 1).
- APR002: Intranasal pan-antiviral.
- APR006: Alum vaccine adjuvant.