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Inflection Biosciences Licenses preclinical oncology programs from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre

04.06.2013

Support Cancer Research

The company, specialized in innovative cancer treatments, will boost potential drugs in preclinical study developed by researchers at the CNIO

Inflection Biosciences Ltd, a private company focused on the development of targeted small molecule treatments for cancer, today announced that it has entered into a license agreement with the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) for the exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and commercialise several novel kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.

The compounds leverage the CNIO’s considerable expertise in drug discovery and comprise a novel pan-PIM kinase inhibitor program and a number of unique multi?targeting kinase inhibitors combining activity on PIM kinase and additional kinases including the phosphoinositide-3 kinase and the mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/mTOR) pathway. All molecules have shown good activity in preclinical models, are orally­available with excellent pharmaceutical properties.

Dr María Blasco, Director of CNIO added “It is a great satisfaction for the CNIO to join forces with the experienced team at Inflection Biosciences, allowing us to take full advantage of our ability to innovate cancer treatments.”

Dr Michael O’Neill, Co-Founder and Director of Research and Development at Inflection Biosciences commented “Following an extensive global search we are delighted to have secured assets in late preclinical stages of development of this quality and potential and from an organisation recognised internationally for the quality of its cancer research and its drug discovery programs.”

ABOUT PIM KINASE INHIBITORS

Kinases regulate cellular signalling networks and thereby control key functions such as proliferation, invasion, survival and differentiation, all important events in tumour development and metastases. PIM proteins belong to a family of serine/threonine kinases composed of 3 isoforms, PIM1, PIM2 and PIM3. PIM kinases play a key role in the cell cycle regulation, having potent anti-apoptotic activity. Knockout mice lacking PIM kinases showed minimal disruption to normal cell function indicating that the mechanism of PIM kinase inhibition would not be associated with serious adverse events. Increased PIM kinase expression is associated with malignant subtypes of leukemia, lymphoma and a number of solid tumours including pancreatic, colorectal and oesophageal cancers and therefore represents a very promising drug target.

ABOUT THE SPANISH NATIONAL CANCER RESEARCH CENTRE (CNIO)

The CNIO was created in 1998 by the National Health Institute Carlos III, with the essential goal of developing research of excellence and providing innovative technology in the field of cancer. A study published in 2011 (SIR World Report 2011) portrays the centre as the best cancer research entity in the world in terms of Excellence Rate and percentage of high quality publications. Dr Maria Blasco is the Director of the CNIO since June 2011. Since its creation, the CNIO has established collaborations with several national and international companies. Moreover, in the past two years the CNIO has launched two spin-off companies: Life Length, focused on marketing in-house-developed technology for telomere length determination as a novel method of disease risk prediction; and BioncoTech, which develops a new treatment for highly aggressive melanoma. More information available at www.cnio.es

ABOUT INFLECTION BIOSCIENCES

Inflection Biosciences Ltd is developing small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Based in Ireland and the UK, the Company is creating a pipeline of highly innovative cancer treatments through alliances with leading cancer research organisations. The pipeline includes a novel PIM kinase inhibitor program and a unique multi-targeting kinase inhibitor program in preclinical development. For more information please visit the Company’s website at www.inflectionbio.com

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