According to the terms of the agreement, ImQuest will immediately complete final preclinical and clinical drug development programs for the agents. Samjin will retain the rights to manufacture and distribute FDA-approved cancer drugs from the series in The Republic of Korea.
The piperazine series has been shown in both cell-based and small animal model anticancer studies to have significant and diverse biological anti-tumor activities. Within the complete repertoire of 105 anticancer small molecules included in the licensing agreement, inhibitory action has been observed against colon, prostate, breast, lung and immune cell tumors.
ImQuest expects to file investigational new drug applications (INDs) with the FDA in 2007 for the treatment of prostate, colon and leukemia cancers, and to develop research programs to evaluate suppression of breast and lung cancer.
The anti-tumor mode of action of the piperazines is quite distinct from that of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Taxol and in addition, they are significantly more potent, active against a variety of different tumor types, and are orally bio-available compared to Taxol. Samjin has also made significant progress in studying the pharmacology and toxicology of several of the lead molecules and these studies will now be accelerated by ImQuest’s drug development efforts.