Mercury Pharmaceuticals

Our Cancer Research Programs are based on the understanding that every cancer patient is unique and therefore each patient’s treatment should be individualized. We have combined ground-breaking research with cutting-edge technologies to develop pioneering therapeutics for cancer and beyond. As we prove the value of our approach, we will continue to build the partnerships, manufacturing and team required to bring individualized treatments to patients worldwide.

Mercury Pharmaceuticals has fostered the development of three research programs derived from our institutional strengths and priorities. As an emerging company, we have concentrated efforts and resources to make the programs successful, well-funded, and interactive with each other, rather than attempting to nurture multiple possible programs. Mercury Pharmaceuticals supports three programs, oriented toward cancer biology, translational oncology, and cancer prevention and control studies.

Technology

Mercury Pharmaceuticals is developing unique and innovative targeted oncolytic cancer therapeutics that utilize a novel mechanism of action to selectively kill cancer cells. These targeted products kill only cancer cells that express the target specific molecules such as receptors or antigens on their surface. Normal cells that do not express these surface molecules remain unharmed.

Mercury Pharmaceuticals product candidates kill cancer cells by a novel mechanism of action by disrupting their cell membranes leading to cell lysis. The steps involved in cell killing are summarized in the figure below. The molecules seek out and specifically bind only to cancer cells that express the target receptors on their surfaces. The positively charged molecules interact with the negatively charged membranes of the cancer cells. The resulting disruption of the cell membrane causes the cancer cell to die by cell lysis, known as necrosis.