Selective Androgen Receptor Degrader Program
Aragon Pharmaceuticals is using its discovery platform to identify Selective Androgen Receptor Degraders (SARDs) for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer.
More than 186,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the US each year. Most of these patients respond to initial treatments, including surgery and radiation, which eradicate the primary tumor. However, approximately 30% of patients relapse, with a rise in PSA and eventual metastatic growth. These patients initially respond well to antihormonal therapies that are the current treatment for these cancers. Eventually, however, most tumors become resistant to these drugs, leaving few treatment alternatives beyond palliative care for this lethal phase of the disease.
SARDs are designed to circumvent the challenges of drug resistance by both binding to the hormone receptor and inducing a conformational change that results in the receptor’s degradation by the proteasome.
The company’s SARD program is currently in the discovery stage.