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Cyclacel Submits IND for Cancer Treatment


Posted on 2006-12-13 07:46:00



Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  announced today that it has submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin clinical trials of CYC116, the company's orally available inhibitor of Aurora kinases A & B and VEGFR2. CYC116 is the third targeted drug candidate from Cyclacel to enter clinical development for the treatment of cancer.

"CYC116 has a unique target profile involving both cell cycle and angiogenesis inhibition mechanisms. In preclinical studies, it demonstrated antitumor activity in both solid tumors and hematological cancers," said Spiro Rombotis, president and CEO of Cyclacel. "The development of CYC116, which emerged wholly from our internal discovery efforts, has capitalized on Cyclacel's strength in cancer biology. Advancement of this drug to IND submission marks another important milestone achieved by the Cyclacel team as part of our strategy of building a portfolio of drugs aimed at distinct targets in the cancer cell cycle."

Aurora kinases are a family of serine/threonine protein kinases that are crucial for ensuring the success of cell division, or mitosis. These proteins, which have been found to be over-expressed in many types of cancers, have generated significant scientific and commercial interest as cancer drug targets. The Aurora kinase family was discovered by Professor David Glover, chief scientist of Cyclacel's Polgen Division. VEGFR2 is a receptor protein that is part of the signaling pathways regulating angiogenesis or blood vessel formation. Several drugs that block angiogenesis have been approved for clinical use after showing efficacy in the treatment of colorectal, kidney and lung cancers.

Cyclacel has two additional compounds in development: seliciclib (CYC202) is being evaluated in a Phase IIb randomized double-blinded study as a third line treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and sapacitabine (CYC682) is in Phase I clinical trials in solid and hematological cancers.




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