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news.Rigel Pharmaceuticals has received two milestone payments from Daiichi Pharmaceuticals as part of their collaboration to identify a new type of oncology drug. The two compounds involved in the deal are potent selective inhibitors of a specific ligase target implicated in cancer cell proliferation.
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The research collaboration, which began in August 2002 aims to identify specific small molecule drug candidates against a ligase target that controls the spreading of cancer cells through protein degradation.
Throughout the past three years, the partnership has met several milestones and Daiichi’s selection of two small molecule compounds marks the successful completion of a key step towards moving these compounds into development. Daiichi will work to advance these novel compounds into preclinical development.
Chairman and CEO of Rigel Pharmaceuticals, James Gower, believes the collaboration will provide faster results, describing the research as a promising. Mr Gower said: “These potent and selective compounds support our belief that ubiquitin ligases may represent a promising and novel area of research for new targeted cancer drugs. We look forward to working with Daiichi as the company leverages its considerable resources to move these compounds into animal models of oncology.”
Rigel was one of the first companies to discover ubiquitin ligases, enzymes that regulate protein degradation within the cell. Some of these inhibitors have shown positive activity in animal models of disease.
In addition to the Daiichi collaboration, Rigel last year established a collaboration with Merck & Co. investigating a number of Merck ligase targets in oncology.