About Astex
Astex Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that discovers and develops small molecule drugs in areas of unmet medical need. The company's primary focus is in oncology. Astex has a broad and expanding pipeline of products in clinical and pre-clinical development generated using its proprietary drug discovery engine, Pyramid™.
AT7519 is Astex's most progressed drug candidate which entered Phase I clinical trials mid 2005. AT7519 is a potent cell cycle inhibitor designed for intermittent therapy that targets key cyclin-dependent kinases resulting in tumour shrinkage. Further Phase I and Phase I/IIa clinical studies of AT7519 in patients with solid tumours and haematological tumours respectively commenced in Q4 2006 and Q1 2007. Astex’s second drug candidate, AT9283 is an inhibitor of aurora, JAK2 and Abl kinases which entered a Phase I/IIa clinical study in patients with haematological tumours in Q3 2006, and patients with solid tumours in two separate studies in Q4 2006 and Q1 2007. Astex has two further clinical candidates both of which are completing formal pre-clinical development. AT9311 is a selective oral cell cycle inhibitor designed for chronic therapy and AT13387 is a novel non-ansamycin inhibitor of Hsp90. All four of Astex's drug candidates were discovered using the company's proprietary drug discovery platform, Pyramid™.
The integrated, fragment-based approach, Pyramid™ rapidly delivers tailored, high-quality, small molecule drug leads with enhanced therapeutic potential. In addition to driving the growth of Astex's in-house oncology pipeline, Pyramid™ underpins the company's drug discovery collaborations across a range of therapeutic areas with major pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas Pharma, Mitsubishi Pharma and Schering AG. These collaborations have validated Astex's technology and delivered valuable early drug leads to our corporate partners. In return, Astex is provided with a revenue stream to fund its internal research in the form of upfront fees, research and development funding, milestones and royalties.
Astex is well financed by leading blue chip US and European investors (Abingworth, Advent International, Alta Partners, Apax, GIMV, HypoVereinsbank, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Schering AG and the University of Cambridge). These investors endorse the value of the Company's platform-to-product business model.