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Asta Bio
Reimagining Cancer Treatment with Superior Targeted Radiotherapies
Founded
2024
Employees*
3
Funding to Date*
$525,000
* Data source: Crunchbase
Ahmad-Reza Saadat, Co-Founder and CEO of Asta Bio
“Radiation is one of the most effective tools we have to treat cancer. The challenge is harnessing that power to target tumors more precisely without harming the patient and to make it more widely available. That’s what we're doing.”
18 million cancer patients are diagnosed each year worldwide, with the majority suffering from advanced metastatic disease. About 90% of patients living with metastatic cancer will die of it.

To treat metastatic cancer, a radiotherapeutic must deliver a potent isotope to the tumor and keep it there long enough to kill the cancer, but clear quickly enough to avoid harming healthy tissue. So far, few radiotherapeutics have managed to meet both requirements.  

Boston-based Asta Bio aims to overcome these challenges with 211-Astatine—the most druggable alpha-emitting radioisotope and the only one that is made in a cyclotron rather than derived from uranium decay. It has shown immense potential to cure metastatic cancers in clinical studies. 

Asta Bio engineers Radiobody™ molecules to target 211-Astatine to metastatic cancers. Derived from alpaca nanobodies, these multispecific targeting molecules remain within tumors for up to two days but clear the rest of the human body within hours—long enough to kill the cancer but short enough to avoid harming healthy tissue.  

Initially, Asta Bio will focus on cancers of the lung, breast, head, neck, and gastrointestinal system. Their plan is to administer 211-Astatine containing Radiobodies™  intravenously in an advanced metastatic setting or following tumor removal to kill surviving cells that can lead to multi-organ metastasis. Currently, Asta Bio is conducting animal studies in partnership with Duke University.

Asta Bio was founded by Ahmad-Reza Saadat, a survivor of childhood cancer and biopharma executive, and Rebekah O’Donnell, PhD, engineer, immunologist, and expert in tumor physical and biological structure. Both have over 20 years of experience and have worked at venture-backed pharma startups, including several that went public. Their goal is not merely to prolong life for cancer patients, but to cure their disease.