Eliene Augenbraun: Almost all of us know someone who suffers from an autoimmune disease. Or maybe you do yourself. Autoimmune diseases are common. Only cancer and cardiovascular diseases are more prevalent. So how do you fight a body that is fighting against itself? argenx, an immunology innovation company that develops antibody-based therapies, is developing a new toolkit of molecules that can tamp down the rebelling part of the immune system. Scientific American Custom Media recently talked to argenx’s new CEO, Karen Massey about what’s in the toolkit and how it’s helping patients.
Karen Massey, thank you so much for joining us. I’ve heard that you and your colleagues call yourselves argonauts. Can you explain why you folks call yourselves that and what you bring to the table as the lead argonaut?
Karen Massey: Yeah, absolutely. The story of the Argonauts actually is what inspired our co-founders of argenx to call our company argenx and therefore we call ourselves argonauts. It’s, the story of the Argonauts is all about a team of people working together to achieve the unthinkable. So, we see our mission as bringing transformative medicines to patients. And we believe the only way that we can do that is by working together as a team, having this big bold ambition, even when it seems impossible, that if we work together, we’ll be able to deliver that mission for patients.
And from my perspective, as I step into this new role as CEO of the company, I’m in the boat with all of those argonauts, and I’m rolling up my sleeves and doing as much as I can to push out innovation in our thinking, to make sure we’re staying curious, to make sure that we’re staying courageous and thinking big, challenging the status quo and really uncovering new cool science, new biology that can deliver transformative outcomes for patients.
Eliene Augenbraun: I know argenx’s expertise is the immune system. We’ve all got this army of immune proteins within us that fight off invaders. For example, immunoglobulin G, or IgG, plays a role in protecting the body from bacteria, viruses and cancer, but when IgGs form to attack normal tissue, you get an autoimmune disease. I know argenx is developing some new therapies to treat autoimmune diseases. One thing I find really fascinating about your approach is that you’re looking at IgGs and the whole system that interacts with IgGs almost like a drug toolkit.
Karen Massey: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’m not a scientist myself, and I find it fascinating when I learn all the intricacies of how the immune system works. It’s incredibly complicated.
Eliene Augenbraun: Indeed, it is. Yet you, as the head of the company, have to be sure your scientists have the resources and guidance they need. What are you focusing on right now?
Karen Massey: What we’re working on is figuring out what are really targeted and precise ways that we can correct when the system goes awry, leveraging components of the immune system to help us to do that. And so certainly with the FcRn, what it allows us to do is use the part of the immune system that removes these autoantibodies from the body using the kind of natural removal system that the body has.
Eliene Augenbraun: FcRn stands for neonatal Fc Receptor. Normally FcRn binds to an IgG molecule and protects it from being destroyed. That makes sense if you want to keep IgG proteins around to fight infections or cancer. But if you want to get rid of IgGs that are attacking the body itself, then you probably want to block FcRn, right?
Karen Massey: Yeah, so FcRn is sort of a transportation system. What we do is we, let’s say, hijack that FcRn system to be able to pull autoantibodies across going to, let’s say, the trash removal system so that those autoantibodies that are causing the trouble—that’s the immune system gone awry—they get pulled across and disposed of so they can’t do harm.
Eliene Augenbraun: I like that, a trash-disposal service. argenx turned an “anti” FcRn into a drug to speed up trash disposal. Instead of picking up an autoimmune IgG from the outside of the cell and spitting it out unharmed, argenx’s drug guides the rogue IgG to the cell’s garbage compactor—the lysosome—for destruction.
Karen Massey: Exactly.
Eliene Augenbraun: Can you guide us down the path a discovery takes from an idea in someone’s head to a therapy that’s actually used by everyday people? How does argenx get there?
Karen Massey: Yeah, I think this is one of the coolest parts of our industry, but in particular, how we do it at argenx. We don’t assume that just our scientists have all the answers or know all of the solutions to these problems. They’re out engaging with other scientists, and really what we call cocreating, taking it from, hey, we’ve identified this target that we might want to look at to how do we create a molecule that can either block or activate or sweep or do whatever we think needs to be done, actually physically build that molecule in the lab, and then we continue to collaborate to bring it to patients. Once it’s gone through safety studies, then we collaborate with clinicians who are treating these patients. How should we design the clinical trial? How do we make sure that we’re proving efficacy or safety on the most important parameters? We get patient input so that we make sure that we’re focused on what’s most important to patients.
Eliene Augenbraun: And how long does that process take typically?
Karen Massey: Many, many, many years. From the inception of an idea to the patient getting the medicine can be a decade depending on how novel the biology is, how complicated it is, and what the pathway is.
Eliene Augenbraun: How do you pick what research projects to invest in?
Karen Massey: Yeah. First of all, I would say all of our programs are aimed at addressing unmet needs. We use a really rigorous process for selecting which indications we want to target. Do we understand the biology and is there a biology rationale? Can we develop this molecule in this indication? Are there end points? Is there a regulatory pathway?
But really importantly, is there an unmet patient need? We have to meet that third criteria in order to move forward.
Eliene Augenbraun: Of everything that argenx is working on, what are you most excited about right now?
Karen Massey: Well, we are working on a lot! And it’s always hard to choose the favorite because there’s so much exciting science that’s ongoing. Certainly, from my perspective, what I’m most excited about is how our scientists continue to identify and uncover these new insights. To really look at the foundational components of the immune system and of our immune response and look at these places where we can intervene that are very targeted, but at the same time, by targeting them, you can impact many different diseases. So, that’s what I find most exciting.
Eliene Augenbraun: Thank you for joining us!
Karen Massey is the CEO of argenx, a company committed to helping improve the lives of people with rare autoimmune diseases. This podcast was produced by Scientific American Custom Media and made possible through the support of argenx. Thank you for listening.
For Scientific American Custom Media, I’m Eliene Augenbraun.
