Curis Selects Hsp90 Inhibitor CUDC-305 as Development Candidate from Targeted Cancer Drug Development Platform
Monday July 21, 8:00 am ET
- CUDC-305 meets key preclinical criteria for advancement -
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS - News), a drug development company focused on seeking to develop the next generation of targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that the Company has selected an orally available, synthetic small molecule inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) as a development candidate from its targeted cancer drug development platform. In addition to demonstrating potent efficacy across a broad range of cancers in preclinical cancer models, CUDC-305 exhibits promising pharmacological features, particularly its high oral bioavailability, high tumor penetration and extended tumor retention.
"Hsp90 has become a target of great interest in the field of cancer therapeutics,” said Curis President and CEO Dan Passeri. “We are pleased to enter this field with our own novel and proprietary compound, CUDC-305, which not only has met our rigorous internal metrics for development candidate selection, but has also demonstrated pharmacological properties that, while based upon early results, we believe may enable it to achieve best-in-class among Hsp90 inhibitors. We have initiated early, but promising, discussions with several pharmaceutical companies regarding a potential collaboration as we seek to continue to advance this candidate towards the clinic. We expect to initiate IND-enabling studies shortly and anticipate that, assuming the outcome of those studies is favorable, we will file an IND application for CUDC-305 in mid-2009.”
In both laboratory and animal testing, CUDC-305 demonstrated high potency in vitro and/or in vivo across a wide range of cancers. Most notably, Curis scientists observed complete tumor regression following oral administration of CUDC-305 in a mouse xenograft model of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Tumor regression has also been observed after treatment of CUDC-305 in mouse xenograft models of breast, non-small cell lung, gastric cancer and glioblastoma brain cancers. In this preclinical testing, the compound also demonstrated an ability to effectively cross the blood brain barrier, and demonstrated an ability to extend survival in an intracranial glioblastoma model. Early stage toxicity studies suggest that CUDC-305 appears to have a better therapeutic window than several leading Hsp90 inhibitors in clinical development.
About Hsp90
Hsp90 is a member of a class of proteins called molecular chaperones that play a fundamental role in the folding, stabilization and degradation of other cellular proteins, or clients, under normal or stressful conditions. Hsp90, in particular, has become an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer because a majority of its client proteins are involved in cellular signaling transduction and have been identified as potential contributors to various aspects of cancer cell growth and survival. Inhibitors of Hsp90 activity may be of therapeutic value if they can prevent Hsp90 proteins from protecting the particular client proteins involved in cancer and allow them to be degraded, thereby inducing cancer cell death.
About Curis’ Targeted Cancer Drug Development Platform
The goal of Curis’ targeted cancer drug development programs is to rationally design and develop novel, proprietary small molecules that target one or more clinically validated targets or pathways known to play key roles in the development or maintenance of cancer. By focusing on these validated targets, Curis hopes to reduce risk, time and costs associated with the drug development process. Using this multi-targeted inhibitor platform, Curis has generated single small molecules that combine HDAC inhibition with suppression of targets that include EGFR, Her2, VEGFR, BCR-Abl/Src, MET, CDK, Aurora, RAF and MEK, to potentially provide enhanced efficacy over existing drugs. The first developmental candidate selected from this program is CUDC-101, a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of EGFR, Her2 and HDAC. An investigational new drug application for CUDC-101 was accepted in June 2008 and the first patient is expected to be treated in the third quarter of 2008. In addition, Curis’ targeted cancer drug development program includes single targeted drugs designed and developed to potentially achieve best-in-class status. The first candidate to be selected from Curis’ single targeted inhibitors is CUDC-305. |
