Santaris Pharma’s tumor drug enters clinical trials

In the US several patients with cancer have now been treated with the company’s survivin inhibitor, which is jointly developed by Santaris Pharma and Enzon Pharmaceuticals. The FDA recently accepted Enzon Pharma­ceutical’s investigational new drug application for the use of the LNA-based Survivin inhibitor.

According to Santaris Pharma, Survivin is a key protein that controls cancer growth by playing a significant role in cell division, as well as inhibiting the programming that controls cell death. The Survivin inhibitor was developed using the locked nucleic acid technology.

Henrik Orum, CSO of Santaris Pharma, said: “This is the fourth LNA-based drug that has been brought into the clinic in record time either by ourselves or by a partner of ours based on our drug discovery engine. We are very pleased by the achievement of this milestone and look forward to seeing other new LNA-based compounds advance into clinical trials across a range of therapeutic areas in the near future.”