Slough, UK, 17th March 2008 – Piramed Limited (“Piramed” or the “Company”), a privately owned UK biotechnology company, announces that the lead candidate in the Company’s collaboration with Genentech Inc. (“Genentech”) is in clinical development in both the US and the UK.
The candidate, GDC-0941, was discovered at Piramed and has since been the subject of pre-clinical evaluation at both companies under the collaboration agreement signed in November 2005. GDC-0941 represents a new class of cancer drug targeting PI 3-kinase, a key intracellular enzyme involved in a broad range of cancers. GDC-0941 demonstrates highly significant anti-cancer efficacy in pre-clinical disease models, not only as a single agent but also in combination with certain approved and experimental therapies.
Under the terms of the agreement with Genentech, Piramed receives milestone payments for the development of GDC-0941 as well as royalties on future product sales. Piramed has conducted pre-clinical research with Genentech, and Genentech will now be solely responsible for clinical development, regulatory approvals, manufacturing and commercialisation of GDC-0941. As part of the collaboration, Piramed can opt to commercialise GDC-0941 in territories outside of the US on agreed terms.
Piramed is funded by JPMorgan Partners and Merlin Biosciences and is focused on drug discovery in oncology and immune inflammation. The Company is developing new classes of small molecule agents, termed signal transduction inhibitors (“STIs”). These compounds target critical intracellular proteins that function as key regulators of aspects of cell function. In cancer these include proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. As a class, STIs are having a significant impact on cancer treatment and are accelerating the adoption of personalised medicine.
Commenting on the collaboration Dr David Knowles, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of R&D at Piramed, said: “We are delighted with the progress we have made with Genentech over the past two years and the pre-clinical data generated. PI 3-kinase represents an important new therapeutic target in oncology and based on the results observed with GDC-0941 inhibitors of this enzyme have the potential to treat a range of common tumours affecting a large population of patients.”
Enquiries:
Piramed Limited Financial Dynamics Michael Moore, Chief Executive Officer Ben Atwell Tel: +44 1753 285 803 Tel: +44 207 831 3113 michael.moore@piramed.com
About Piramed Limited Based in Slough, UK, Piramed is an emerging biotechnology company founded by Professor Michael Waterfield FRS, Professor Peter Parker FRS, Professor Paul Workman and Dr Srinivas Akkaraju. Piramed discovers and develops inhibitors of the phosphatidinylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) superfamily for cancer and non-cancer indications such as immune-inflammation. PI 3-kinase is a signalling enzyme that has key roles in cell cycle regulation, proliferation, survival, apoptosis and motility.
The Company received Series A funding of £8 million (US$13.6million) in July 2003 and convertible loan notes of £2 million (US$3.6million) in August 2005, from JPMorgan Partners (now managed by Panorama Capital, successor to the venture capital programme of JPMP Global Fund I) and Merlin Biosciences. Through separate agreements, Piramed has certain exclusive and non-exclusive licences to certain novel chemical entities which arose from a tri-partite collaboration between three major cancer research institutes with UK operations (the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK and the Institute of Cancer Research) and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Company (now Astellas Pharma Inc.). The Company also has a licence for screening PI 3-kinase from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and research collaboration agreements with the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College, London. Piramed entered into a collaboration agreement with Genentech in November 2005.
For more information about Piramed, visit the website at www.piramed.com
