MET

Class

Anti-MET monoclonal antibody; modality field is wrong -- listed as 'small molecule', should be 'monoclonal antibody' (the ADC version, REGN5093-M114, is a separate distinct compound)

Pathway

HGF/MET signaling

MET, also called hepatocyte growth factor receptor, is a receptor tyrosine kinase found on the surface of epithelial cells. Its natural ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), triggers MET dimerization and activation, setting off intracellular signaling that promotes cell growth, survival, motility, and tissue repair. This HGF/MET pathway is important during normal development and wound healing, but in many cancers it becomes abnormally active through gene amplification, activating mutations, protein overexpression, or persistent HGF stimulation from surrounding tissue. Excessive MET signaling drives tumor cell proliferation, invasion, and resistance to other targeted therapies, particularly in lung, gastric, and other epithelial cancers. Because of this, MET has become a therapeutic target across several drug modalities: small-molecule kinase inhibitors that block the enzyme's catalytic activity from inside the cell, monoclonal antibodies that prevent ligand binding or receptor dimerization at the cell surface, and antibody-drug conjugates that use MET binding to deliver cytotoxic payloads selectively into MET-expressing tumor cells. Each approach exploits the same underlying biological rationale — that tumors dependent on aberrant MET signaling can be selectively disrupted — while differing in how directly they interfere with the receptor and in what additional biological effects they produce beyond receptor blockade.