Products Overview
Astex has rapidly established a broad pipeline of next generation, molecularly-targeted small molecule oncology drugs using its drug discovery engine, Pyramid™. AT7519 is Astex's most progressed drug candidate and entered Phase I clinical trials mid 2005. AT7519 is a potent cell cycle inhibitor that targets key cyclin-dependent kinases resulting in tumour shrinkage. The product is currently being trialled in Phase I studies in patients with solid tumours at leading oncology centres in the UK, Canada and in the US. Additional Phase I and Phase I/IIa clinical studies commenced during Q4 2006 and Q1 2007. Astex’s second dug candidate, AT9283, is a multi-targeted inhibitor of aurora kinases A and B, JAK2 and abl kinase which entered a Phase I/IIa study in patients with haematological cancers in September 2006 in the US and commenced Phase I studies in patients with solid tumours at two centres in the UK in Q4 2006. A further Phase I study in patients with solid tumours commenced during Q1 2007 at centres in Canada. Astex has selected two further drug candidates from its internal oncology pipeline; AT9311, a cell cycle inhibitor designed for oral chronic dosing, and AT13387, a novel non- ansamycin inhibitor of Hsp90, both of which are currently completing formal preclinical development.
Each of Astex's drug candidates has been designed to target either a single protein or a group of key proteins implicated in the pathology of a specific cancer. As this targeting defines a distinct 'molecular signature', these drug molecules are expected to exhibit differentiated clinical profiles and so improve the success rate of developing novel treatments for cancer.
Cancer is an area of great unmet medical need with more than 12 million people diagnosed with the disease globally each year. Astex's technology and in-house oncology expertise are combined to address the increasing number of oncology drug targets, delivering potential new treatments for cancer which are targeted more at the underlying molecular causes of the cancer and are therefore expected to be more effective and better tolerated than current therapies.
Astex's product development is driven by an established clinical development team with expertise, gained in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, in advancing novel molecularly-targeted cancer therapies into and through early clinical development. This team is advised by clinical consultants drawn from leading clinical trial centres in the UK, Canada and the US who are experts in the field of translational cancer biology and the clinical development of novel cancer medicines.