Lorus Therapeutics Inc, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and development of pharmaceutical products and technologies for the management of cancer, has filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for its anticancer drug candidate LOR-253.

The IND application is for a first-in-man phase-I dose escalation trial in advanced or metastatic solid tumours. The trial will assess the safety profile, tolerability, and anti-tumour activity of LOR-253 in cancer patients, as well as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of this drug. The phase-I trial will be conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The principal investigator for the trial is Dr Richard D Carvajal.

LOR-253 is a small molecule compound that has shown selective and potent antitumor activity in preclinical investigations with a variety of human cancers, including colon cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, and has demonstrated an excellent therapeutic window due to its low toxicity. LOR-253 is a first-in-class inhibitor of the novel cancer target Metal-Responsive Transcription Factor 1 (MTF-1).

Lorus is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research and development of novel therapeutics in cancer.