Protagonist and Phylogica are using different technologies to different competitive advantage.
Protagonist’s focus is on developing stable oral peptide therapies that target clinically validated pathways. Protagonist’s rationale:
We believe this approach of developing oral peptides that target clinically validated pathways, provides us with both a de-risked and differentiated competitive advantage. Compared to injectable antibody drugs, our peptides offer targeted delivery to the GI tissue compartment, potential for improved safety due to minimal systemic exposure, improved convenience and compliance due to oral delivery, lower cost, and an opportunity for earlier introduction of targeted therapy for inflammatory bowel disease
For example, Protagonist’s lead compound, PTG-100, targets α4β7 integrin, which is extracellular. Takeda’s already approved injectable antibody, Entyvio, targets the same pathway. Protagonist is aiming to prove that PTG-100 can work equally or more effectively than Entyvio with improved safety, fewer side effects and more convenient oral dosing.
Phylogica believes its competitive advantage is in developing peptide therapies with the ability to cross the cell membrane and interact with a target inside the cell in a way that beneficially changes the behaviour of that cell. It aims to “expand the universe of undruggable targets”. Phylogica’s sell:
Opening up the intracellular target landscape for large molecules holds the promise of new classes of drugs with heightened sensitivity and specificity of interaction, meaning better therapeutics with greater potency and fewer side effects.
Both companies have potentially great technologies and both meet an unmet need. In targeting "the oncogene from hell", Phylogica, I think it’s fair to say, has set itself an even greater challenge than Protagonist. If Phylogica can manage to clear its remaining technical hurdles and progress its FPP-iMYC through Phase 1, one might expect that it will no longer be a $30 million company!
BTW, both Protagonist and Phylogica were covered in an article five years ago, posted at the time by Akki. A worthwhile read.
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