Top Innovators: Kaleetan Pharmaceuticals

Jeff Ledbetter and Martha Hayden-Ledbetter, co-founders

By Steve Reno | November 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Photograph by Hayley Young

Ledbetters Seattle-based pharmaceutical company Dendreon garnered national attention earlier this year with an immune-boosting treatment that fights cancer. Now Kaleetan Pharmaceuticals is seeking to improve on the idea.

Co-founders Jeff Ledbetter and Martha Hayden-Ledbetter plan to create a treatment that will stimulate the body’s immune system to fight the cancer as if it were a virus. It’s the same approach that Dendreon used to develop Provenge, the prostate cancer treatment that made history when it won FDA approval last April. Kaleetan hopes to create a drug that is easier to administer than Provenge.

There are a lot of steps to Dendreon’s method. The patient’s own white blood cells must be extracted, then incubated with an antigen found in prostate cancer cells. After the white blood cells “learn” to fight the cancer, they are re-infused into the patient to help stimulate the immune response. A complete treatment requires three courses over the span of a month.

Whereas Dendreon’s treatment is customized to the patient, Kaleetan’s would be customized to the type of cancer. The company plans to develop a protein drug that can be injected directly into the patient. The drug would then “teach” white blood cells to recognize cancer cells as invaders rather than healthy tissue. The goal is to create a treatment that is more affordable and easier to administer than Dendreon’s. The company is currently raising funding to develop a pilot drug.