Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has paid small molecule drugs specialist Array BioPharma $1 million for achieving a research milestone in their anti-cancer program.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
In December 2003 Array partnered the oncology portion of its MEK program, including its lead compound, ARRY-142886, for co-development and commercialization with AstraZeneca. At that time, Array and AstraZeneca established a collaboration for research and development of additional clinical candidates.
The companies have now selected an additional clinical candidate for their small molecule anti-cancer program, triggering the milestone payment from AstraZeneca to Array.
MEK is a critical enzyme at the intersection of several biological pathways, which regulates cell proliferation and survival as part of the ras/raf/MEK/erk pathway. Constitutive activation of the ras/raf/MEK/erk pathway has been implicated in many cancers, including lung, pancreatic, colon, melanoma and thyroid caused by cancer-associated, mutational activation of B-raf and ras proteins.
Array describes MEK inhibition as an attractive anti-cancer strategy as it has the potential to block inappropriate signal transduction regardless of the upstream position of the oncogenic aberration.
“Our first proprietary compound, ARRY-142886, continues to make good progress in phase Ib. We believe the data generated in this study will support more advanced clinical testing of this promising compound,” said Dr Kevin Koch, president and CEO at Array.