Vepdegestrant:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved vepdegestrant, marking a historic milestone as the world’s first-ever approved therapy based on PROTAC (Proteolysis-Targeting Chimera) technology.Vepdegestrant is a first-in-class, orally administered therapeutic molecule designed using PROTAC technology. Instead of merely blocking a malfunctioning protein like traditional inhibitors, this drug physically hijacks the cell’s internal disposal system to completely destroy the disease-causing protein.The drug was co-developed through a strategic pharmaceutical partnership between the biotechnology firm Arvinas, Inc. (the pioneer of clinical PROTAC development) and Pfizer.It is specifically indicated for the treatment of patients with ESR1-mutated, ER-positive (estrogen receptor-positive), and HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer. It targets the estrogen receptor, which frequently mutates (ESR1 gene) during standard hormone therapy, causing the cancer to become resistant to conventional treatments.
