Major participating investors included Forward Ventures, Lilly Ventures, and Novo A/S. The funding will be used to advance the clinical development of Calsed (amrubicin hydrochloride), Cabrellis’ third-generation anthracycline, which is currently in phase II development.
Cabrellis plans to initiate three separate clinical trials in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in 2006. The first trial, designed to assess the safety and efficacy of Calsed in reference to topotecan in the second-line treatment of patients with SCLC who previously responded to platinum-based chemotherapy, is currently underway at multiple clinical trial sites in the US.
Additional phase II clinical trials are planned to assess Calsed in chemotherapeutic naive patients and in patients who were refractory to earlier platinum-based chemotherapy. Cabrellis is also planning trials outside of the SCLC indication to evaluate the potential utility of Calsed in other tumor types.
Cabrellis has the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Calsed in North America and Europe, licensed from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma. Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma launched Calsed in Japan in December 2002 and the drug has been administered to over 6,000 patients without any reports of cumulative cardiotoxicity to date.