Kitov Jumps Headfirst Into Immuno-Oncology With the Acquisition of TyrNovo
January 13, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Tel Aviv, Israel-based Kitov Pharmaceuticals Holdings announced that it has acquired a majority stake in TyrNovo Ltd., a privately held company focused on immuno-oncology.
Kitov will start by acquiring an approximately 56 percent equity stake in TyrNovo from the majority shareholder for about $2 million in cash and $1.8 million equivalent ordinary shares of Kitov based on its January 11, 2017 closing price. The closing is expected to occur today. Kitov indicates that it expects it may buy more equity stakes in the company from all or some of TyrNovo’s additional minority shareholders.
“The TyrNovo acquisition represents a major milestone in Kitov’s strategic vision of establishing a diverse pipeline that we believe will secure long term value creation for its shareholders,” said Paul Waymack, Kitov’s chairman and chief medical officer, in a statement. “We are excited about NT219 and its prospects in the oncology field. NT219 can be developed as a platform combination drug for overcoming multi-drug resistance often observed in various tumors. It has the potential to be developed as a combination therapy with several approved oncology drugs for multiple types of tumors.”
Kitov is also planning to file a New Drug Application (NDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for KIT-302, for osteoarthritis pain and hypertension, simultaneously, in the first quarter of this year. If all goes well, it will launch the drug in the first half of 2018. KIT-302 is a patented combination of celecoxib and amlopidine besylate. It also has KIT-301 in development, another combination therapy that includes naproxen, for the same indication.
It also plans to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA for NT219. NT219 promotes the degradation of two cancer-related checkpoints, Insulin Receptor Substrates (IRS) 1 and 2. It also inhibits signal transduction and activation of transcription 3 (STAT3). In preclinical studies, the compound, in combination with approved cancer drugs, has shown significant anti-tumor effects and increased survival.
TyNovo’s chief executive officer, Hadas Reuveni, co-invented the company’s technology platform with Alexander Levitzki at the Hebrew University. NT219 was exclusively licensed from Yissum, the Hebrew University Research Development Company. As the company states, “TyrNovo demonstrated the potential of NT219 to overcome resistance to multiple anti-cancer drugs, by using the Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) models, in collaboration with Prof. Izhak Haviv from the Bar-llan University and Prof. M. Stemmer from Clalit HMO.”
Studies have shown that NT219 in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs appears affective in sarcoma, melanoma, pancreatic, lung, ovarian, head and neck, prostate and colon cancers.
“I am excited to join Kitov and its team to expedite the development of NT219, which addresses a true unmet medical need for numerous oncology indications,” said Reuveni, in a statement. “Cancer drug resistance is the major reason for failure in anti-cancer drug treatment. Preventing resistance to the drugs is critical for improving effective cancer treatment.”
Kitov Pharmaceuticals is currently trading for $3.22 (US).
The Wall Street Beacon reported yesterday, “The stock stands 0.14 percent away from its 50-day simple moving average and also -13.57 percent away from the 200-day average. Recently, the commodity stands -52.09 percent away from the 52-week high and 51.36 percent from the 52-week low.”
There is a consensus buy/sell of 2.00 based on a scale of 1 to 5, with a target price of $7.