As part of the agreement, Novacea will gain the rights for the worldwide development and commercialization of AQ4N. KuDOS said that it anticipates the completion of patient recruitment for its ongoing phase I clinical trials with AQ4N around the middle of 2007.
Prior to its acquisition by AstraZeneca in 2006, KuDOS acquired a license for AQ4N from BTG in March 2002 and subsequently licensed the North American rights for AQ4N to Novacea in December 2003.
AQ4N has the potential applicability to multiple tumor types, both in combination with a number of chemotherapeutic agents and as a monotherapy for hematological malignancies.
“As reported this week at the American Association for Cancer Research, investigators presented new and important preclinical evidence that AQ4N in combination with mitoxantrone is able to permeate deeply within all tumor types and selectively accumulates in hypoxic tumor cells,” said John Walker, chairman and interim CEO of Novacea.