Santaris Pharma announced that the fourth LNA-based drug has been brought into the clinic. In the USA several patients with cancer have now been treated with the company's Survivin inhibitor, which is jointly developed by Santaris Pharma and Enzon Pharmaceuticals. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted Enzon Pharmaceutical's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the use of the LNA-based Survivin inhibitor. Survivin is a key protein that controls cancer growth by playing a significant role in cell division, as well as inhibiting the programming that controls cell death. The Survivin inhibitor was developed using the Locked Nucleic Acid technology. In preclinical animal studies, EZN-3042 inhibited Survivin expression and tumour growth. It also potentiated the anti-tumour activity of taxol, an approved cancer therapeutic.
"Survivin is considered one of the most promising cancer targets and we are pleased that we were able to quickly advance this important compound into patients," said Jeffrey H Buchalter, chairman and chief executive officer of Enzon Pharmaceuticals.
EZN3042 is one of eight LNA-based RNA inhibitors being developed by Santaris Pharma and Enzon Pharmaceuticals through a comprehensive partnership within the therapeutic area of cancer. Another compound forming part of the collaboration, EZN2968, an LNA-based hif1alfa inhibitor, is currently being investigated in two phase-I/II trials against a variety of cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, Enzon will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize these compounds in the US and other non-European territories. Santaris Pharma will retain exclusive rights to commercialization in Europe.
"This is the fourth LNA-based drug that has been brought into the clinic in record time either by ourselves or by a partner of ours based on our highly effective Drug Discovery Engine," said Henrik Ørum, CSO at Santaris Pharma. "We are very pleased by the achievement of this milestone and look forward to seeing other new LNA-based compounds advance into clinical trials across a range of therapeutic areas in the near future." At the Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting being held April 18-22, 2009 in Colorado, Enzon Pharmaceuticals will present data on EZN3042 as well as on new LNA targets.
Santaris Pharma is a privately held biopharmaceutical company with exclusive rights to use the LNA Drug Platform to develop new classes of RNA medicines targeting mRNAs and miRNAs associated with disease.
Enzon Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing, manufacturing and commercializing important medicines for patients with cancer and other life-threatening conditions.
Enzon's drug development programmes utilize several cutting-edge approaches, including its industry leading PEGylation technology platform and the Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology.