SoCal's Ignyta Ceases Development of Certain Drug Programs to Focus on Priority Pipeline

SoCal's Ignyta Ceases Development of Certain Drug Programs to Focus on Priority Pipeline
February 23, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

SAN DIEGO—Southern California-based Ignyta, Inc. , is shelving three of its experimental cancer treatments in order to focus its resources on “core” pipeline programs that have the best shot at successfully achieving regulatory approval, the company announced Monday.

Jonathan Lim, chairman and chief executive officer of Ignyta, said after a review of the company’s pipeline, as well as preclinical data, the company believes streamlining its pipeline will be a better use of its resources in developing beneficial therapies and will generate greater returns for shareholders.

Under its pipeline restructuring, Ignyta said it will focus its resources on entrectinib, a protein kinase inhibitor, which is currently in Phase II and taladegib, a cancer treatment Ignyta acquired from Eli Lilly for $2 million in November.

Additionally, the company will hold onto RXDX-105, a Phase I/II small molecule inhibitor of BRAF, EGFR and RET and RXDX-106, a preclinical pseudo-irreversible inhibitor of AXL and cMET. Those last two compounds Ignyta acquired from Teva Pharmaceuticals in March of 2015.

Earlier this month, Ignyta initiated a Phase I/Ib trial for taladegib for patients with platinum-resistant, recurrent ovarian cancer or recurrent, advanced solid tumors. Ignyta said the trial is an expansion study to help determine dosing levels for a coming Phase II trial. Ignyta believes taladegib represents a potential first-in-class hedgehog/smoothened inhibitor for second-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma.

Ignyta said it will eliminate three developmental programs for the experimental drugs RXDX-107, RXDX-103 and RXDX-108.

In July, Ignyta announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the investigational new drug application for RXDX-107, a compound comprising an alkyl ester of bendamustine encapsulated in HSA to form nanoparticles.

RXDX-107 was one of four compounds Ignyta snapped up from Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals last year for about $41.6 million. In the deal, Ignyta acquired RXDX-105, RXDX-106; RXDX-107; and RXDX-108, a preclinical selective inhibitor of the atypical kinase RKCiota plus next generation PKCiota inhibitors.

“After reviewing our pipeline and recent preclinical data for certain programs in light of this goal, and keeping in mind our obligation to be good stewards of our resources, we are undertaking this streamlining of our operations to focus on the key priorities and competencies that we believe are most likely to generate value for patients and stockholders,” Lim said in a statement.

Ignyta said it will provide additional details regarding its strategic priorities in March. The company planned to file a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the new position and change in pipeline, the company said.

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