Seragon Pharmaceuticals Launched, Focused on Selective Estrogen Receptor Degrader Platform (SERD)

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SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - August 19, 2013) - Seragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced its formation and the closing of its Series A financing. Seragon is focused on developing new treatments for estrogen-driven cancers based on its Selective Estrogen Receptor Degrader (SERD) platform. Seragon was spun out of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The lead compound in Seragon's SERD program, ARN-810, is currently being evaluated in a Phase I trial for ER+ metastatic breast cancer. Seragon is based in San Diego, CA and financed by legacy Aragon investors The Column Group, OrbiMed Advisors, Aisling Capital, TopSpin and venBio. Richard Heyman, former CEO of Aragon, has been named CEO of Seragon.

About SERD Program

Seragon Pharmaceuticals' orally active selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) represent a potential new treatment for progressive metastatic breast cancer that may circumvent the problem of resistance to anti-hormonal therapies. SERDs are estrogen receptor antagonists that also induce a conformational change that results in the degradation of the receptor. Seragon has identified multiple SERDs that have pharmacokinetic profiles sufficient to drive a robust therapeutic response and result in degradation of the receptor and anti-tumor activity. The novel profile of these potent, orally bioavailable, nonsteroidal agents may result in greater efficacy and response rates in patients with hormone-refractory breast cancer compared to other drugs in development. Seragon's most advanced leads induce tumor regressions in both tamoxifen sensitive and tamoxifen resistant tumor models in vivo. Based on these results and others, the company is currently advancing multiple, distinct lead SERD chemical scaffolds toward clinical development. Seragon's SERDs are initially being developed for the treatment of women with late-stage, progressive metastatic disease.

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