Pattern Pharma

About us

Our Mission:

To make patients innately better

Pattern Pharma is a Toronto-based life sciences company whose innovative therapeutic harnesses the innate immune system to combat cancer and infectious disease.

For over two decades, Pattern Pharma’s founders and its scientific team have been dedicated to unlocking the power of the innate immune system.

Pattern’s lead product, P2PAR-100, is built on the following foundations:

The immune system is our most powerful tool for maintaining good health. The flip side is that immune failure (dysregulation) underlies many cancers and infectious diseases.
The immune system is composed of two key pillars: innate immunity and adaptive immunity.
The innate immune system is the first to respond to initial infection and can sense threats through hard-wired receptors, namely Pattern Recognition Receptors such as toll-like receptors (TLRs).

P2PAR-100, is a TLR agonist (TLR4 in particular, but also TLR1/2 and TLR2/6) that activates the innate immune system.

Pattern’s initial focus is on HPV-related cancers, with HPV being estimated to cause approximately 5% of cancers worldwide.

With our deep expertise in innate immunity and TLRs more generally, our main focus is on overcoming the limitations and challenges faced by current immuno-oncology therapies.

Pattern Pharma Announces Closing of C$5 Million Financing

P2PAR-100: Our Lead Product

Pattern’s lead product, P2PAR-100, is an immunotherapeutic which activates innate immune cells to kill cancer cells and safely activate an efficacious innate and adaptive immune response, thereby overcoming the limitations of many traditional therapies.

P2PAR-100 has high molar activity, is easy to store and use, and is effective when administered systemically or intralesionally in microgram amounts.

Within the next 12 months, Pattern expects to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application with the US FDA for P2PAR-100, in order to commence a Phase 1b/2a clinical study at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), with Phase 1a addressing advanced solid tumors in general and Part 2a addressing HPV-associated cancers.

Pattern has received pre-IND feedback from the FDA and has since then been incorporating the FDA’s feedback.

P2PAR-100: How it works

Pattern’s lead product candidate, P2PAR-100, is a TLR agonist (TLR4 in particular, but also TLR1/2 and TLR2/6). P2PAR-100 works by activating key innate immune cells including macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs) and natural killer cells. In addition, P2PAR-100 also mobilizes the adaptive immune system (via DCs) and creates protective immune memory through a process of in situ vaccination. This process occurs without any need to previously identify and isolate antigens or genetic material.

P2PAR-100 also triggers the transient production of Type I and II interferons and cytokines by immune cells (TNFα, IL-12, IFN-β, IFN-γ, IL-1α, IL-1β, GM-CSF, MCP-1, IL-27, etc.). In addition, P2PAR causes the membrane expression of costimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86, CD40) and MHCI and MHCII molecules on antigen-presenting cells, as well as the production of effector mediators such as nitric oxide and peroxynitrite.

Opportunities: Pipeline in a Product

Pattern’s initial focus is on HPV-related cancers. Despite the availability of preventive HPV vaccines, HPV prevalence remains high and HPV-associated cancers remain a significant health concern worldwide. It is estimated that 5% of all cancers worldwide (with more than 600,000 new cancer cases per year) are attributable to HPV.

Other pipeline opportunities for P2PAR-100 include cancers caused by infections in general (15%+ of cancers), as well as other cancers more generally.

Based on existing clinical and pre-clinical data, there are also combination therapy opportunities with conventional cancer therapies and/or other immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors.

Collaborations

Pattern has collaborated closely with the Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard), the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), McGill University (Goodman Cancer Centre and TB Centre), and the University of Toronto.