SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutro Biopharma today announced that it has been named by FierceBiotech as one of 2014's Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, designating it as one of the most promising private biotechnology companies in the industry. 

"Sutro has earned some careful attention from an A-list group of backers as well as industry partners for what promises to be a next-gen approach to developing antibody-drug conjugates and bispecifics," says John Carroll, editor of FierceBiotech.  "This is the kind of breakthrough thinking that could have a big impact on R&D."

"We are honored to be selected as a Fierce 15 biotech company," said William Newell, chief executive officer of Sutro Biopharma. "ADCs and bispecifics hold much promise, particularly for oncology, and Sutro continues to advance antibody therapeutics with improved stability and therapeutic indexes in collaboration with our partners and as part of our own pipeline. Our cell-free protein synthesis technology is uniquely suitable for the development of best-in-class ADCs, including those with two or more mechanistically diverse warheads to potentially address the challenge of drug resistance in cancer." 

The Fierce 15 celebrates the spirit of being "fierce" – championing innovation and creativity, even in the face of intense competition.  This is FierceBiotech's twelfth annual Fierce 15 selection.  A complete list of "Fierce 15" companies can be found online at www.fiercebiotech.com/fierce15. 

An internationally recognized daily report reaching a network of over 270,000 biotech and pharma industry professionals, FierceBiotech provides subscribers with an authoritative analysis of the day's top stories. Every year FierceBiotech evaluates hundreds of private companies from around the world for its annual Fierce 15 list, which is based on a variety of factors such as the strength of its technology, partnerships, venture backers and a competitive market position.

About FierceBiotech
FierceBiotech is the biotech industry's daily monitor, an email newsletter and web resource providing the latest biotech news, articles, and resources related to clinical trials, drug discovery, FDA approval, FDA regulation, patent news, pharma news, biotech company news and more. More than 150,000 top biotech professionals rely on FierceBiotech for an insider briefing on the day's top stories. Signup is free at www.fiercebiotech.com/signup.

About Sutro Biopharma
Sutro Biopharma, located in South San Francisco, is developing a new generation of antibody drug conjugate therapeutics and bifunctional antibody-based therapeutics for targeted cancer therapies. These therapeutics will significantly extend the clinical impact of current oncology therapeutic approaches and are beyond what can be envisioned with current, cell-based expression technologies. Sutro's biochemical synthesis technology, Xpress CF™ and Xpress CF+™, allows the rapid and systematic exploration of many protein drug variants to identify drug candidates. Once the product candidates are identified, production can be rapidly and predictably scaled up to commercial levels. Sutro has established a Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility for the production of clinical supplies of materials using its biochemical protein synthesis platform. Sutro has formed partnerships with multiple biopharma companies for the use of the company's technology. Sutro is currently collaborating with Celgene Corporation to design and develop novel antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies and with Merck KGaA, Germany, which operates as EMD Serono in the U.S. and Canada, to develop ADCs.

For more information, visit www.sutrobio.com.

CONTACTS:

Rebecca Friend
FierceBiotech
202-824-5050
rebecca@fiercemarkets.com

Sutro Biopharma
Martina Schwarzkopf, Ph.D.
Russo Partners
(212) 845-4292
martina.schwarzkopf@russopartnersllc.com

SOURCE Sutro Biopharma