Endocyte is a biopharmaceutical company established in 1996 and headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana,[1] a resident of the Purdue Research Park.[2] In 2011 the company completed successfully an initial public offering (IPO).[3] As of 2013, the company had 93 employees.[1] The original president and CEO, Ron Ellis,[1] was succeeded by Mike Sherman, who held a CFO position at the company before this change in June 2016. In 2018 the company was acquired by Novartis.[4]
Endocyte’s other preclinical drug candidates also target the folate receptor as well as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) receptors.[1] The company was formed based on technology developed by Philip Low (the company's CSO), and Christopher Leamon, PhD, the company’s VP of research. This technology is a folic acid-based drug delivery system,[1] referred to now as folate targeting.[7] The company is also developing SMDCs with varying drug payloads as well as different ligands for other molecular targets, such as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and has also developed, with Bristol-Myers Squibb, an epothilone-folic acid conjugate (BMS-753493), described at a 2008 conference.[8]
In mid-October 2018, Novartis announced it would acquire Endocyte Inc for $2.1 billion ($24 per share) merging it with a newly created subsidiary.[9][10] Endocyte will bolster Novartis' offering in its radiopharmaceuticals business, with Endocyte's first in class candidate 177Lu-PSMA-617 being targeted against metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.[11]
