AbTx: drug-conjugated immunotherapy for targeting resistant tumors
The startup AbTx, which specializes in immuno-oncology, aims to tackle the most difficult-to-treat cancers using a breakthrough technology: Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). This approach involves “delivering and targeting extremely potent chemotherapy directly to the heart of tumors,” explains Meddy El Alaoui, the company’s CEO and founder.
This strategy specifically targets diseases with limited treatment options, such as pancreatic cancer, for which current options remain limited. By combining the precision of antibodies with the potency of cytotoxic molecules, AbTx aims to significantly improve treatment efficacy while reducing systemic toxicity.
AbTx Accelerates Efforts Against Treatment-Resistant Cancers
The startup has just reached a pivotal milestone with a pre-seed funding round. This funding is intended to enable the company to achieve essential scientific milestones. “Our first round of funding will allow us to reach value-creating milestones, including mouse tests that will be extremely important for validating all the work accomplished so far,” explains Meddy El Alaoui.
These preclinical results represent a key milestone ahead of a more ambitious funding round, aimed at bringing the technology closer to industrial validation. The objective is clear: to overcome technical hurdles and achieve proof-of-concept results that would enable us to license our technologies to major players in the pharmaceutical industry, both in France and internationally.
Targeted chemotherapies at the heart of tumours
Beyond its scientific development, AbTx is part of a dynamic regional ecosystem. The company benefits from the support of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region and a network of academic and industrial partners engaged in biotherapy and bioproduction, grouped together under BIOVALIANCE.
For Meddy El Alaoui, this collective momentum is essential: it must enable us to “strengthen our technological arsenal based on innovative products so that we can offer these solutions to industrial companies”. In the longer term, AbTx is also exploring internal vector-based radiotherapy, a promising field that could become a key driver of regional therapeutic innovation.