Cancers of the gastrointestinal tract are frequent in Asia; stomach and liver cancers are a leading cause of death. In the west, while early screening can detect these “internal” cancers, many are detected too late and have already spread and require systemic therapy but long-term response has been elusive. Prolonged survival has been achieved with immunotherapy for some solid tumors, but current checkpoint inhibitors lower the threshold of host immune system reactive to self as well as the cancer cells. Thus, unwanted autoimmune disease induced by the checkpoint inhibitors alleviates their effectiveness.

Cadherin-17 oncogene was discovered in Hong Kong by Arbele’s founder to be abnormally high on cancer cells of the gut and provide a way to target immune therapy to the cancerous cells. Arbele has developed a multi-targeting antibody platform and a complementary platform to use those proteins to modify immune cells to target abnormal cancer cells. Arbele seeks strategic partners and investors for long-term development of our lead drug candidates, ARB202, a novel CDH17/CD3 bispecific T-cell engager, and ARB001, potentially allogenic cord-blood-CAR-NK cells, to provide therapeutic options to patients suffering from GI cancer.

• Stomach and liver cancers are a leading cause of death and more prevalent in Asians.
• GI cancers if not screened and/or detected early cannot be removed by surgery having limited therapies for long term survival.
• Untargeted immunotherapies that use one’s own immune system to attack cancer are hampered by inducing uncontrolled autoimmune reactions that can be lethal.