Heidelberg Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company working on a new treatment approach in oncology and developing novel drugs based on its ADC technologies for the targeted and highly effective treatment of cancer. ADCs are antibody-drug conjugates that combine the specificity of antibodies with the efficacy of toxins to fight cancer. Selected antibodies are loaded with cytotoxic compounds, the so-called payloads, that are transported into diseased cells. Inside the cells, the toxins then unleash their effect and kill the diseased cells.
The Company uses several compounds and has built up an ADC toolbox that overcomes tumor resistance via numerous pathways and addresses different types of cancer using various antibodies. The goal is to develop targeted and highly effective ADCs for the treatment of a variety of malignant hematologic and solid tumors.
Heidelberg Pharma is the first company to use the compound Amanitin from the green death cap mushroom in cancer therapy. The biological mechanism of action of the toxin represents a new therapeutic modality and is used as a compound in the Amanitin-based ADC technology, the so-called ATAC technology. It offers the opportunity to break through therapy resistance and also eliminate dormant tumor cells, which could lead to significant progress in cancer therapy - even for patients who no longer respond to other treatment. The Amanitin-based ADC development candidates are called ATACs.
The most advanced product candidate HDP-101 is a BCMA-ATAC for the indication multiple myeloma, which is currently in clinical development.
The first candidate that Heidelberg Pharma is developing with a toxin other than Amanitin is HDP-201, an exatecan-based ADC. Exatecan is a topoisomerase I inhibitor that has proven itself in cancer therapy and is used in two already approved ADCs. It differs in its mode of action from that of Amanitin and thus expands the company's range of compounds.
The company as well as its subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH is based in Ladenburg near Heidelberg in Germany. It was founded in September 1997 as Wilex Biotechnology GmbH in Munich and was changed to WILEX AG in 2000. In 2011, the subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH was acquired and after a restructuring, the registered office of WILEX AG was moved from Munich to Ladenburg and the name of the Company was changed to Heidelberg Pharma AG. The subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma GmbH is now named Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH. Heidelberg Pharma AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the Regulated Market / Prime Standard.
The Company has out-licensed product candidates from Wilex's legacy portfolio (upamostat and girentuximab) to partners. For further information, please go to portfolio or technologies.
