The startup develops a therapy for soft tissue sarcoma that utilizes precision medicine principles, drug repurposing, and reformulation of anagrelide. This approach provides novel treatment options for patients with cancer who face limited therapeutic alternatives.
Funding
$2.7M 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
Soft tissue sarcomas, including gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), are rare cancers with limited treatment options, especially for patients who develop resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) or have wild-type GIST, which does not respond to TKIs. These cancers often grow undetected until they reach an advanced stage, leading to poor prognoses. There is a critical unmet need for novel targeted therapies that can overcome resistance and provide curative options.
Solution
Sartar Therapeutics is developing SAR003, a first-in-class precision medicine therapy for cancers expressing the phosphodiesterase 3A (PDE3A) gene, which is highly expressed in GIST and other soft tissue sarcomas. SAR003 functions as a molecular glue, inducing cancer cell death in rapidly dividing cells. The therapy is formulated as a subcutaneous, long-acting drug product of anagrelide, offering a novel mechanism of action and improved drug delivery. Sartar is pursuing SAR003 as both a monotherapy and in combination with existing anti-cancer agents, with the goal of providing a curative therapy for advanced GIST and becoming a frontline treatment option.
Target Audience
The primary target audience includes patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and other soft tissue sarcomas, particularly those with advanced disease, TKI resistance, or wild-type GIST, as well as the clinicians who treat them.
Features
- Targets cancers with high phosphodiesterase 3A (PDE3A) gene expression
- Novel mechanism of action as a molecular glue to induce cancer cell death
- Formulated as a subcutaneous, long-acting drug product of anagrelide
- Potential for use as both a monotherapy and in combination therapy
- Orphan Drug Designations (ODD) from EMA and FDA for the treatment of GIST
- Demonstrated outstanding efficacy in preclinical _in vivo_ models