Cardinal Laboratories LLC, 2701 Kent Ave, West Lafayette, IN 47906, US

Endocyte works on the development of a new generation of receptor-targeted therapeutics, or smart drugs, for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. The available nontargeted drugs are toxic to normal healthy cells causing serious side effects. Receptor-targeted therapeutics can be more helpful because they can be targeted with precision to high affinity receptors over expressed by diseased cells. The company s initial focus is on a receptor for the vitamin folic acid, which is often over expressed on cancer cells. By attaching drugs to folic acid, the vitamin acts like a Trojan horse to target and deliver drugs to cancer cells, which could allow higher and more effective doses to be given with reduced side effects. Endocyte is a privately held company headquartered in West Lafayette, Ind.