Prof. Philippe Karoyan, PhD | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, École Normale Supérieure – Paris Sciences & Lettres; Jonathan Levy, PharmD &MSc in Management; Jean-Pascal Tranié, Graduate of École Polytechnique and École Nationale d’Administration; Florence Allouche Aknin, PharmD & MBA; Luis Gomez Morales, PhD; Sterenn Goubin, DVM; Natasha Danda, MS; Xavier Rouchon, MS; Olivia Soufflet, PhD candidate; Soheib Kerbache, MS, DVM & PharmD candidate; Farah Doghmane, MS & PharmD candidate;
Competition Sponsor: EIT Health
Awardee Sponsor: 2025
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common adult leukemia, accounting for about 30% of cases. Its global incidence has risen sharply (+150% between 1990 and 2019). In the United States, about 23,690 new cases are expected in 2025.
Despite therapeutic progress, a major unmet medical need remains. It concerns patients with resistance biomarkers, those who are double-refractory or double-exposed to BTK and BCL2 inhibitors, and elderly patients ineligible for intensive strategies. For these populations, treatment options remain limited, and current therapies provide temporary remissions.
To address these patients, Pepkon is developing peptide-based therapies that mimic thrombospondin-1 (THBS1). These peptides act through a mechanism inducing calcium-dependent immunogenic tumor cell death. This mechanism triggers immunogenic cell death (ICD), characterized by the release of DAMPs (ATP, calreticulin, HMGB1), which activate antigen-presenting cells and initiate an adaptive immune response. In patients, this could promote clearance of residual tumor clones and reduce relapse risk through a “vaccination effect.”
Pepkon’s peptides have also demonstrated enhanced activity in vitro as monotherapy or in combination, outperforming current standard CLL therapies on leukemic patient cells, including poor prognostic biomarkers that are also found across other cancers: del(11q), del(17p/TP53), and 2p gain. Furthermore, Pepkon’s peptides have shown efficacy across a broad spectrum of malignancies, including T- and B-cell leukemias, myeloid leukemias, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, as well as solid tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer and glioblastoma.
This novel approach opens new perspectives and restores hope for patients with limited therapeutic options.