Our mission is to develop actionable in vitro diagnostics for cancers with a high unmet need for screening and therapy-stratification.

2012
Incorporation of Parent Company

VAR2 Pharmaceuticals spuns out from the University of Copenhagen propelled by an unprecedented finding linking cancer to malaria.

2015
Identification of Target Molecule

Oncofetal Chondroitin Sulfate (CS) is reported as a secondary, post-translational sugar (glycosaminoglycan) modification to proteins expressed in the placenta. We subsequently identify that oncofetal CS re-appears in cancer.

2017
VARCT Incorporation

VARCT Diagnostics is established as a subsidiary of VAR2 Pharmaceuticals to pursue diagnostic applications based on the detection of oncofetal CS.

2018
Identification of CTCs modified with oncofetal CS

The first CTCs decorated with oncofetal CS are reported in blood samples from patients with prostate, pancreatic and hepatocellular carcinoma. We subsequently expand our efforts to other cancers.

2024
Identification of Vartumabs

VAR2 Pharmaceuticals and VarCT Diagnostics identify and characterize first-in-class antibodies binding oncofetal CS with high affinity and high specificity specificity, a tremendous breakthrough considering the nature of our target.

We initiate implementation of these antibodies alongside rVAR2 in various in vitro diagnostic assays.

2025
Identification of oncofetal CS presence on tumor-derived extracellular vesicles

VarCT Diagnostics identify for the first time the detection of oncofetal CS on tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) in plasma samples of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

We are currently exploring these new biomarkers to expand our portfolio of in vitro liquid based cancer diagnostics.

2012

Company Incorporation

VAR2 Pharmaceuticals spuns out from the University of Copenhagen propelled by an unexpected finding linking cancer to malaria.

20??

Identification of Target Molecule

Oncofetal Chondroitin Sulfate (ofCS) is identified as the molecule being expressed in the placenta and later demonstrated to be ubiquitously, selectively and highly expressed in cancers.

20??

Identification of first therapeutic agent

VAR2CSA is identified as the malaria parasite protein responsible for binding ofCS in the placenta. VAR2 Pharma team successfully produces a recombinant variant

2017

Diagnostics' Subsidiary

VARCT Diagnostics is established as a subsidiary of VAR2 Pharma. VARCT focuses on various diagnostic applications using ofCS presence in circulating tumor cells and other relevant agents.

20??

rVAR2 in vitro and in vivo efficacy and safety demonstrated

rVAR2 demonstrated to bind various cancers (incl. patient tissues), and conjugation with toxins resulted in efficacious tumor regression in various cancers in mouse models. rVAR2 has been discontinued as a therapeutic approach (but not as a detection tool, see to VARCT Diagnostics website) in favor of proprietary antibodies with superior scaling characteristics.

2022

Vartumabs (IP-protected Abs) identified

Testing multiple large phage display libraries in an elaborate panning strategy on rVAR2 purified ofCS resulted in 2 lead candidates with high affinity and high specificity for ofCS. VAR2 Pharma has extensively tested and validated these lead candidates as short chain variable fragments.

2023

Strong in vivo safety and efficacy data

VAR2 Pharma has demonstrated strong safety and efficacy in mouse models of 10+ cancer types using different therapeutic assets, including Antibody-Drug Conjugates and CD3-bispecifics.

2024

First Clinical Study

Microdosing Phase 0 study planned to start Q3 2024. GMP production of scFvs completed.

Our mission is to develop actionable in vitro diagnostics for cancers with a high unmet need for screening and therapy-stratification.

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