Low: Purdue support key to startup’s success
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Hoosier life sciences icon who recently received another major win says the ecosystem at Purdue University is a key factor in the success of his West Lafayette-based startup. On Target Laboratories Inc. was granted a second approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Cytalux, an injectable imaging agent used to help surgeons find and remove cancerous tissue.
Dr. Philip Low, the company’s founder and chief science officer, credited the university’s support in the startup’s efforts in an interview with Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta.
“The atmosphere here, where using your knowledge to create something that matters to the public, is not frowned upon,” Low said. “In many other institutions, if you actually try to use your discoveries to create a commercial product, that looks like you’re prostituting yourself…and your scientific colleagues may look down on that because you’re diverting yourself from the pursuit of pure knowledge.”
Low is also the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in Purdue’s College of Science and the university’s Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery.
Cytalux has developed a fluorescent dye that attaches itself to folate, a B vitamin that cancer cells use to divide rapidly. The dye then illuminates the cancer cells, making it easier for surgeons to find more cancerous tissue and remove it.
In a December interview with the Associated Press, Low said surgeons in clinical trials have been able to find additional cancer in almost two-thirds of patients who have been treated with Cytalux.
The imaging agent was first approved by the FDA for use in ovarian cancer patients. The FDA granted its second approval last month to use Cytalux in lung cancer patients.
“Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among both men and women, and there are roughly 236,000 new lung cancer patients each year in the United States. So, it’s a major problem,” Low told the AP. “What Cytalux does is it enables the surgeon to see these cancer lesions, these nodules, and to remove them.”
Low said Purdue has been instrumental in helping him launch seven companies over the course of his career, including Endocyte, which he sold to Switzerland-based Novartis Inc. in 2018 for $2 billion.
He credits former Purdue President Mitch Daniels for fostering the ecosystem that has helped him and many other researchers and startups.
“Mitch has been very progressive in looking for ways to use the tremendous knowledge generated at the university to do something that helps the public,” said Low. “In my own particular situation, he’s been very supportive by enhancing the support and infrastructure necessary to spin out companies that can be developed out of the discoveries we make, and that’s been very helpful to me.”
Low added another benefit of On Target Laboratories is the economic impact it has on the state not only by employing Hoosiers, but also by fueling support industries that are needed to keep the labs going and keeping many Purdue graduates in the state.
In addition to Cytalux, Low has earned two other FDA approvals for his discoveries.
The FDA last April approved Pluvicto, a precision targeted drug designed to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The second, which was also approved this year, is a companion imaging agent called Locametz, which is used to identify patients that have prostate cancer.
“It’s very gratifying to find that the research that you have done will actually end up helping people,” Low said. “It’s not always the case.”