Yale Researcher's 25-Year Quest Delivers New Cancer Drug

After 25 years of dedication, Yale chemist Craig Crews just saw his pioneering cancer research transform into an FDA-approved treatment helping breast cancer patients across America.

The therapy, called vepdegestrant (brand name Veppanu), works differently than traditional cancer drugs. Instead of simply blocking harmful proteins, it actually degrades them, eliminating the root cause of certain breast cancers.

Crews developed the technology called PROTACs back in the 1990s at Yale, asking himself a simple question: "Could we drag problem proteins to the natural machinery responsible for recycling proteins inside cells?" That curiosity sparked decades of research bridging chemistry and biology.

In 2013, he founded Arvinas, a New Haven biotechnology company, to turn his academic research into real medicine. The company partnered with Pfizer to develop vepdegestrant as a once-daily oral pill for women with estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer with ESR1 mutations.

The FDA approval carries personal meaning for Crews beyond professional achievement. His mother received a breast cancer diagnosis last year, giving him firsthand understanding of the challenges patients and families face when considering treatment options.

"I'm thrilled that breast cancer patients will have an additional option for treatment," said Crews, who holds professorships in molecular biology, chemistry, and pharmacology at Yale.

The Ripple Effect

This first-ever PROTAC approval opens doors far beyond breast cancer treatment. Dozens of companies inspired by Crews's Yale research are now developing similar degrader therapies for various cancer types, neurodegeneration, and other challenging diseases.

Crews has launched several drug development companies throughout his career, including Halda Therapeutics (recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson for prostate cancer research) and Proteolix, which developed Kyprolis, an FDA-approved treatment for multiple myeloma blood cancer.

His journey demonstrates how basic research funded today becomes tomorrow's life-saving treatments. Crews credits the success to continued support for academic science, which he calls "the underlying foundation for most exciting new drugs developed these days."

For women facing this specific type of advanced or metastatic breast cancer, vepdegestrant represents more than scientific achievement. It represents another chance, another option, another reason for hope.