drug-maker

Aadi Bioscience won approval for Fyarro, the albumin-bound sirolimus that treats the rare sarcoma PEComa, then sold it and renamed itself Whitehawk Therapeutics to develop antibody-drug conjugates.

AbClon is a South Korean antibody and cell-therapy company whose CD19 CAR-T AT101 uses a newly discovered antibody binder and has shown high response rates in relapsed B-cell lymphoma.

Alethia Biotherapeutics is a Montreal biotech whose antibody sotevtamab (AB-16B5) blocks secreted clusterin, a protein that lets lung and other cancers change shape, spread and resist treatment.

Alligator Bioscience is a Swedish biotech that makes antibodies to switch on the immune system inside tumours; its CD40 agonist mitazalimab improved survival with chemotherapy in a pancreatic cancer trial.

Atara Biotherapeutics is the Californian company behind Ebvallo, the first approved off-the-shelf T-cell therapy, which treats Epstein-Barr virus lymphoma after transplant using T cells from healthy donors.

Aulos Bioscience is a Californian biotech whose antibody AU-007 binds interleukin-2 so that the body's own cytokine expands cancer-killing cells without feeding the regulatory cells that dampen immunity.

BioAtla is a San Diego biotech whose conditionally active antibodies switch on in the acidic surroundings of a tumour and stay quiet in healthy tissue, the basis of its drug conjugates and the CTLA-4 antibody BA3071.

Bolt Biotherapeutics builds antibodies that carry an immune-stimulating payload into tumours so the body's own myeloid cells attack the cancer; BDC-4182 aims this at Claudin 18.2.

Byondis is a Dutch antibody-drug conjugate company, formerly Synthon Biopharmaceuticals, whose HER2 conjugate trastuzumab duocarmazine improved progression-free survival in the TULIP trial but did not win US approval.

Camurus is a Swedish drug-delivery company whose FluidCrystal depot turns injections into long-acting formulations; CAM2029 is its monthly octreotide depot for acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumours.

CanariaBio is a South Korean biotech that took over oregovomab, an antibody against the ovarian cancer marker CA-125 that is given with chemotherapy to prime an immune response against the tumour.

Cardiff Oncology is a San Diego biotech developing onvansertib, an oral PLK1 inhibitor that is being tested with chemotherapy and bevacizumab as first-line treatment for RAS-mutant colorectal cancer.

CIMAB is the commercial arm of Havana's Center of Molecular Immunology, the Cuban institute that created the EGFR antibody nimotuzumab and the lung cancer vaccine CIMAvax-EGF.

Corvus Pharmaceuticals is a Californian biotech whose oral ITK inhibitor soquelitinib rebalances T cells, with a registrational trial in relapsed T-cell lymphoma and studies in atopic dermatitis.

CRISPR Therapeutics is the gene-editing company co-founded by Emmanuelle Charpentier that shares Casgevy with Vertex and is building off-the-shelf CAR-T cells such as CTX112 for lymphoma and autoimmune disease.

Dren Bio is a Californian biotech whose bispecific antibodies recruit macrophages to engulf diseased cells; DR-01 directs this against CD94 to clear the cancerous cells of T-cell and natural killer cell lymphomas.

ENB Therapeutics is a New York biotech that blocks the endothelin B receptor, a switch tumours use to shut out immune cells, so that checkpoint inhibitors work in melanoma and other cancers that had stopped responding.

EnGeneIC is an Australian biotech that loads bacterially derived nanocells with chemotherapy and steers them to tumours with antibodies; E-EDV-D682 carries a super-cytotoxic payload to EGFR-expressing cancers.

Everest Medicines is a Shanghai company that brings in medicines for Asia and is building an mRNA platform, including the personalised cancer vaccine EVM16 and the off-the-shelf tumour vaccine EVM14.

ExCellThera is a Montreal cell-therapy company that uses the small molecule UM171 to multiply blood stem cells from cord blood, making transplants possible for patients who would otherwise lack a donor.

Faron Pharmaceuticals is a Finnish biotech whose antibody bexmarilimab re-programmes immunosuppressive macrophages, with early activity in myelodysplastic syndromes and leukaemia.

Fennec Pharmaceuticals is the North Carolina company behind Pedmark, the sodium thiosulfate infusion given after cisplatin to protect children's hearing from the chemotherapy.

Genrix Bio is a Shanghai antibody company, listed on the Shanghai STAR market, whose oncology lead GR1803 is a BCMA and CD3 bispecific T-cell engager for multiple myeloma.

GlobeImmune is a Colorado biotech that used whole heat-killed yeast to deliver tumour antigens to the immune system; GI-6301 carried the transcription factor brachyury for chordoma and other cancers.

Gracell Biotechnologies is the Chinese cell-therapy company that made CAR-T cells overnight with its FasTCAR process and built the BCMA and CD19 dual-targeting CAR-T GC012F, bought by AstraZeneca in 2024.

Greenwich LifeSciences is a Texas biotech running a phase 3 trial of GLSI-100, a HER2 peptide vaccine given after standard treatment to stop breast cancer coming back.

Guerbet is the French contrast-agent company behind Lipiodol, the iodised poppy-seed oil that radiologists use to deliver and image chemotherapy in liver tumours.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical is one of South Korea's largest drug companies, known for its long-acting protein platform and for olmutinib, the third-generation EGFR inhibitor approved in Korea as Olita in 2016.

Hookipa Pharma is a Vienna biotech that engineers arenaviruses into vaccines that drive unusually strong killer T-cell responses; HB-200 targets the HPV16 proteins that cause many head and neck cancers.

HotSpot Therapeutics is a Boston biotech that drugs the regulatory pockets of proteins rather than their active sites; its oral CBL-B inhibitor HST-1011 releases a brake on T cells.

Huabo Biopharm is a Shanghai antibody company whose bispecific HB0036 blocks PD-L1 and TIGIT at once so that exhausted T cells can attack the tumour.

Humanigen, formerly KaloBios, made lenzilumab, an antibody that neutralises GM-CSF to blunt the cytokine storms of CAR-T therapy and COVID-19, before filing for bankruptcy in 2024.

Hummingbird Bioscience is a Singapore biotech that uses computational biology to pick hard-to-reach antibody epitopes; its HER3 antibody HMBD-001 was developed with Cancer Research UK.

I-Mab is a biotech, founded in Shanghai and now based in Maryland, whose Claudin 18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific givastomig and CD73 antibody uliledlimab are in trials for stomach and lung cancer.

Immix Biopharma is a Los Angeles cell-therapy company whose BCMA CAR-T NXC-201 is the first CAR-T to show deep responses in AL amyloidosis, the disease in which misfolded antibody fragments damage the heart and kidneys.

Intensity Therapeutics is a Connecticut biotech whose INT230-6 is injected straight into tumours with a penetration enhancer that spreads chemotherapy through the whole mass and triggers an immune response.

Jubilant Therapeutics, part of India's Jubilant group, designs small molecules that hit two epigenetic targets at once; JBI-802 inhibits both LSD1 and HDAC6 for myeloproliferative neoplasms and small cell lung cancer.

Keros Therapeutics is a Massachusetts biotech that works on the TGF-beta family signals controlling blood cell production; its activin ligand trap elritercept treats anaemia in myelodysplastic syndromes and myelofibrosis and was licensed to Takeda.

Lantern Pharma is a Texas company that uses its RADR machine-learning platform to revive shelved cancer drugs; LP-184 is a DNA-damaging agent activated in tumours with DNA repair defects, including glioblastoma.

Lindis Biotech is the German company that took over catumaxomab, the trifunctional antibody once sold as Removab for malignant ascites, and brought it back to regulators after its earlier withdrawal.

Linnaeus Therapeutics is a New Jersey biotech whose oral drug LNS8801 activates the oestrogen receptor GPER, a pathway that pushes melanoma cells to stop dividing and become visible to the immune system.

Lyvgen Biopharma is a Shanghai antibody company that builds agonists of immune-activating receptors such as CD137 and CD40; its CD137 antibody LVGN6051 is being tested with PD-1 blockade.

MedPacto is a South Korean biotech whose oral TGF-beta receptor inhibitor vactosertib is being tested with chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors in colorectal, stomach and bone-marrow cancers.

Netris Pharma is a Lyon biotech built on Patrick Mehlen's discovery that tumours use the guidance protein netrin-1 to survive; its antibody NP137 blocks netrin-1 and has shown activity in endometrial cancer.

NextSource Biotechnology is the Florida specialty pharma that sells lomustine in the United States as Gleostine, the nitrosourea chemotherapy used in brain tumours and Hodgkin lymphoma.

OBI Pharma is a Taiwanese biotech that turns the tumour sugar Globo H into cancer vaccines and antibody-drug conjugates, best known for the breast cancer vaccine adagloxad simolenin.

OncoResponse is a Seattle biotech that mines the antibodies of patients who responded exceptionally well to immunotherapy; OR502 blocks LILRB2 to re-educate the suppressive myeloid cells in tumours.

Oncternal Therapeutics is a San Diego biotech that developed the ROR1 antibody zilovertamab, licensed to Merck as an antibody-drug conjugate, and TK216, a small molecule against the EWS-FLI1 fusion that drives Ewing sarcoma.

Panbela Therapeutics is a Minnesota biotech whose drug ivospemin starves pancreatic cancer of polyamines, molecules the tumour needs to grow, and is being tested with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in first-line treatment.

PellePharm is a Californian company, an affiliate of BridgeBio, that reformulated the Hedgehog inhibitor patidegib as a skin gel to prevent basal cell carcinomas in people with Gorlin syndrome.

Phanes Therapeutics is a San Diego biotech whose bispecific antibodies pair a tumour antigen with an immune signal; peluntamig hits DLL3 and CD47 in small cell lung cancer and spevatamig hits Claudin 18.2 and CD47 in stomach and pancreatic cancer.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals engineered small lipocalin proteins called Anticalins into cancer immunotherapies, including the HER2-targeted 4-1BB agonist cinrebafusp alfa, before merging into Palvella Therapeutics in 2024.

Pinnacle Biologics is the Illinois company that markets Photofrin, the porfimer sodium photosensitiser used in photodynamic therapy for oesophageal cancer, Barrett's oesophagus and lung cancer.

Prestige Biopharma is a Singapore-based antibody company, listed in Korea, that makes biosimilars and is developing PBP1510, a first-in-class antibody against the pancreatic cancer protein PAUF.

Primmune Therapeutics is a San Diego biotech whose oral TLR7 agonist PRTX007 activates the innate immune system in short daily pulses to fight solid tumours and viral infections.

Remix Therapeutics is a Massachusetts biotech that makes small molecules to change how RNA is processed; REM-422 destroys the messenger RNA for the transcription factor MYB, a driver of adenoid cystic carcinoma and acute myeloid leukaemia.

Rhizen Pharmaceuticals is a Swiss biotech, part of India's Incozen group, whose dual PI3K delta and gamma inhibitor tenalisib is being tested in T-cell lymphoma and breast cancer.

RhoVac was a Swedish biotech whose peptide vaccine RV001 trained T cells against RhoC, a protein of spreading cancer cells, but its phase 2b trial in prostate cancer failed in 2022.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals is a Boston company whose MC4R agonist setmelanotide, sold as Imcivree, treats the uncontrolled hunger and obesity of rare genetic disorders and of damage to the hypothalamus, including after treatment for craniopharyngioma and other brain tumours.

Shanghai Miracogen is a Chinese antibody-drug conjugate developer whose HER2 conjugate MRG002 has been tested across breast, stomach, bladder and biliary cancers and whose EGFR conjugate MRG003 targets head and neck and nasopharyngeal cancer.