CAMBRIDGE, England, November 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Astex Therapeutics Ltd. today announced that data on its drug candidates AT9283, AT7519 and AT9311 will be presented at the American Society of Hematology's 49th Annual Meeting and Exposition, 8-11th December 2007, at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
AT9283 is an inhibitor of the kinases Aurora A, Aurora B, JAK2, BCR-Abl and Flt-3. There is strong evidence for an important role of each of these kinases in the development or progression of a variety of cancers. AT9283 is currently being investigated in three multi-centre clinical trials, including a Phase I/II study in patients with refractory haematological malignancies.
AT7519 is a selective inhibitor of certain Cyclin Dependent Kinases (CDKs), currently in two multi-centre Phase 1 clinical trials.
AT9311 (also known as NVP-LCQ195) is also an inhibitor of CDKs, but with a pharmacological profile that is markedly different from that of AT7519. Astex is developing AT9311 in collaboration with Novartis.
Astex discovered all of these compounds using its proprietary fragment-based drug discovery platform Pyramid(TM).
"Astex has discovered and is developing a number of products that may have promise in the treatment of a wide range of life-threatening haematological diseases. Together with investigators from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, we are reporting for the first time that one of these, AT9283, has already shown early signs of clinical efficacy as a single agent in the treatment of advanced refractory AML and CML," said Harren Jhoti, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Astex.
Hagop Kantarjian, Chairman of the Department of Leukemia at M.D. Anderson, Principal Investigator in the Phase I/II study of AT9283, said, "We see preliminary evidence of the anti-leukemic activity of AT9283 at well-tolerated doses in patients with relapsed and refractory haematological malignancies, including AML and CML. These results are encouraging and support further clinical development of AT9283."
In addition to AT9283, AT7519 and AT9311, Astex has discovered and is developing:
- AT13387, an Hsp90 inhibitor, for which Astex will file, during the fourth quarter of 2007, an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA to start clinical trials; and
- AT13148, a potent and selective inhibitor AKT and certain other AGC kinases, which is in pre-clinical development.
Astex also has five internal drug discovery programmes and is pursuing another six projects in partnership with leading pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim.
About Astex
Astex Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that discovers and develops novel small molecule therapeutics. Using its pioneering fragment-based drug discovery platform Pyramid(TM), Astex has built a pipeline of five molecularly-targeted oncology drugs, of which two are currently being tested in clinical trials and three are in pre-clinical development.
In addition to its proprietary research programmes, Astex's unprecedented productivity in lead discovery has been endorsed through numerous partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, AstraZeneca, Bayer-Schering and Boehringer Ingelheim.
For further information on Astex Therapeutics and to download copies of the poster presentations after the meeting, please visit the Company's website at http://www.astex-therapeutics.com
j.carmichael@astex-therapeutics.comhttp://www.astex-therapeutics.com
CONTACT: Contacts: Astex Therapeutics Limited, Jeremy Carmichael, Director
of Business Development, Email: j.carmichael@astex-therapeutics.com, Tel:
+44(0)1223-226200
