Maxim Pharmaceuticals announced it has entered into an agreement with Shire BioChem Inc. under which Maxim has reacquired the rights to the MX2105 series of vascular targeting agent cancer drug candidates.

The MX2105 series was licensed in July 2000 to BioChem Pharma, a company that was subsequently acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals. In July 2003 Shire Pharmaceuticals announced that it was exiting the field of oncology research, creating the opportunity for Maxim to reacquire the rights to the MX2105 series of compounds.

Maxim also announced that two abstracts describing the results of preclinical testing of compounds within the MX2105 series have been accepted for presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting to be held March 27th through 31st in Orlando, Fla.

One of the lead compounds, MX116407, demonstrated statistically significant anti-tumor activity and produced tumor regression as a single agent in animal lung cancer models. In addition, the combination of MX116407 and certain cytotoxic agents demonstrated statistically significant anti-tumor activity and tumor regression, and a higher rate of complete cures than the combination of other reported vascular targeting agents combined with cytotoxics. MX116407 is being prepared for studies designed to support the initiation of human clinical trials.

MX2105 was identified through Maxim's proprietary high-throughput caspase-based screening assay. In conjunction with the license Maxim and Shire BioChem collaborated on the development of the MX2105 family under a joint research agreement. As part of these efforts, Maxim's chemistry group designed and synthesized over 300 analogs within the MX2105 family to determine the structure-activity relationship and to improve pharmacological properties. Compounds within the MX2105 series have been tested in multiple tumor xenograft models and have demonstrated activity against multiple cancer types, including breast cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer. The new agreement calls for Maxim to pay Shire BioChem certain milestone and royalty payments upon the successful advancement of any drug candidates within the MX2105 series.

"We were pleased to have the opportunity to consolidate the rights to MX2105 series within Maxim, as this compound family complements our existing portfolio of apoptosis cancer drug candidates," said Larry G. Stambaugh, Maxim's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our research team has been successful at identifying a diverse group of compounds that induce apoptosis in cancer cells through novel mechanisms, of which the MX2105 series is one example."

Multiple U.S. and international patents and patent applications encompass the composition of matter and use of MX116407 and other analogs within the MX2105 series. The MX2105 series is one of more than 40 compound families identified by Maxim through its proprietary caspase-based high-throughput screening system that targets the identification of compounds that modulate programmed cell death, or apoptosis.