BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug development company, announced that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with the National Institutes of Health (the “NIH”) for the rights to commercially develop aminoflavone pro-drug (AFP-464) for the treatment of cancer.
AFP-464 is a novel anticancer agent currently being investigated in two phase 1 clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (“NCI”) in patients with solid tumors. Preclinical studies into AFP-464’s mechanism of action have shown that AFP-464 is converted to metabolites, which bind covalently to DNA, resulting in p53 activation and apoptosis. AFP-464 has shown a unique pattern of growth inhibitory activity in the NCI’s 60 tumor cell line screen, with breast, ovarian, lung and renal tumor cell lines exhibiting particular sensitivity to the compound. In vivo antitumor activity of AFP-464 has been demonstrated in several xenograft studies in mice bearing renal and breast cancer.
“We are honored that the NIH has selected Tigris to license rights to this exciting cancer compound, which has already progressed to phase 1 clinical trials under NCI leadership,” stated Edmundo Muniz, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Tigris.
Dr. Muniz added that Tigris “is very proud of its pipeline of cancer and pre-cancer treatments. With the addition of AFP-464, Tigris will be developing two clinical stage compounds in addition to the two exciting pre-clinical targeted oncology therapeutics that we recently acquired. We intend to use our collective experience and expertise to advance these treatments through the clinic and into the hands of physicians and patients as efficiently as possible.”
“With the preclinical data generated to date and AFP-464’s novel mechanism of action, this molecule is a promising new drug candidate, especially for the potential treatment of patients with renal cancer or breast cancer,” said Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., Senior Investigator, Director, Translational Drug Development Division, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona Department of Medicine and a member of the Tigris Scientific Advisory Board. “I look forward to seeing the data from the phase 1 studies.”
Under the terms of the license, Tigris will provide the NIH development-based milestone payments and royalties based on sales of the licensed product.
About Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutic technologies to treat oncology, infectious diseases and other areas of unmet medical need. Tigris is currently conducting a Phase II clinical study for A-007, its topical treatment for pre-cancerous and cancerous anogenital lesions associated with HPV. Tigris is also developing two novel, targeted small molecule oncology compounds. Tigris’ mission is to efficiently move its existing and future technologies through the various stages of clinical development in order to meet patients’ needs for safe and effective treatments of human illnesses.
http://www.tigrispharma.com Contact: Edmundo Muniz President and Chief Executive Officer Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (239) 444-5400 info@tigrispharma.com
Tigris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
CONTACT: Edmundo Muniz, President and Chief Executive Officer of TigrisPharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-239-444-5400, info@tigrispharma.com
Web site: http://www.tigrispharma.com/
