BRISBANE, Calif., March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- BiPar Sciences, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on novel therapeutics for cancer, announced today that the Company has opened enrollment into a Phase I clinical trial of its lead compound, BSI-201, for patients with advanced malignancies. BSI-201 is the first of a new class of cancer therapies that selectively induces tumor cell death by inhibiting enzyme function central to tumor survival.
BSI-201 is a potent, novel inhibitor of PARP (poly-adenyl-ribose polymerase), an important regulator of gene transcription and DNA repair. In numerous preclinical studies, BSI-201 has been shown to be very well tolerated and exhibited activity against a broad range of tumor types, including but not limited to ovarian, prostate, breast, colon, lung, pancreatic, cervical and bladder.
The open-label, dose-escalation clinical study will be conducted at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio. The trial is designed to confirm safety of the drug in patients and establish a maximum tolerated dose and pharmacokinetic profile. Data on activity also will be collected.
“There is an increasing appreciation of the importance of PARP as a target for novel cancer agents,” said principal investigator of the Phase 1 study Anthony Tolcher, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center and Director of Clinical Research at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio. “Recent studies have shown this approach may be particularly applicable in patients with certain types of breast cancer and ovarian cancer, a cancer with few good treatment options today.”
“The encouraging pre-clinical results across multiple cancer types combined with the favorable safety profile observed to date compared to traditional chemotherapeutic agents, makes this compound an attractive candidate for further development in the clinic,” said Henry Q. Xiong, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of GI Oncology and principal investigator of this study at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
“This is a major milestone for the company as we pursue our focused goal of developing a series of promising, novel, anti-cancer drugs,” said Thomas F. White, BiPar’s President and CEO. “We advanced BSI-201 into clinical trials just one year after our initial financing, making the achievement that much more notable. In addition, pre clinical development on the company’s next clinical candidates is progressing rapidly and on schedule.”
About BiPar Sciences
BiPar Sciences is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company committed to creating a world-class drug development and commercialization organization that addresses significant unmet medical needs in oncology. The Company’s lead product candidate is BSI-201, which is now in early-stage clinical testing for advanced malignancies. The Company will be evaluating the potential of BSI-201 in multiple cancers, and is developing additional cancer drug candidates, all of which were discovered by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.
BiPar Sciences, Inc.
CONTACT: E. Blair Schoeb of WeissComm Partners, Inc., +1-760-365-1857, orblair@weisscommpartners.com, for BiPar Sciences, Inc.
