Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT's Marc Songini: RI plans launch of cord blood center
NECN: Scvngr tours explore cities, campuses by cell phone
A 30-year-old drug platform discovered by the late researcher Judah Folkman that attacks the blood vessels that grow and support tumors is once more the new, new thing, say experts.
Called anti-angiogenesis, the drug platform includes various compounds that disable the body’s ability to nurture blood vessels in diseased tissues. When applied to a cancer — one of a number of conditions researchers claim it can be used for — the drugs frustrate tumor growth. At one point ridiculed, then heavily hyped, anti-angiogenesis has matured solidly enough so that large companies such as Genentech Inc. and Pfizer Inc. are already in the market selling products based on it.
When Folkman, who died last year, pioneered the anti-angiogenesis concept 30 years ago in a lab at Boston’s Children’s Hospital to treat cancer, “everyone called him insane,” said Jim Shanahan, vice president of anti-angiogenesis startup SynDevRx Inc., based in Cambridge. It took Genentech’s success with Avastin five years ago — now a $3 billion-a-year anti-cancer drug — to change peoples’ minds.
“We are in a new era of angiogenesis-based therapies,” noted William Li, president and medical director of the nonprofit Angiogenesis Foundation, based in Cambridge.
According to Li, there are a half-dozen local companies now in various stages of clinical trials trying to capitalize on the success of Avastin: Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., ArQule Inc. and TransMolecular Inc., among others. Some of the larger established companies in the field besides Genentech include Novartis Pharma AG, with Gleevec and Pfizer, which makes Sutent.
“It’s a huge area for development,” noted Mark Trusheim, president of Acton-based life sciences consultancy Co-Bio Consulting LLC Worldwide. He estimated almost 10 percent of the more than 2,500 compounds in development for cancer are based on anti-angiogenesis.
Among the new local companies is SynDevRx, which is developing two drugs, Caplostatin and Lodamin, that target an enzyme that controls the vascular cells, said Shanahan. The original drug, called TNP-470, was discovered accidentally in Folkman’s own lab in 1990. The next year, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. licensed the compound and took over its development. Takeda abandoned it in 2001 because of its physical limitations — for instance, it didn’t mix with water. Folkman’s lab then took it and developed a polymer version of TNP-470 called Caplostatin, which compensated for prior shortcomings. Startup SynDevRx, founded in 2007, is now developing it to the clinical proof-of-concept stage and is trying to close a $4 million Series A round to move ahead with experiments.
“As for funding, we are almost there, but it has been difficult in the extreme,” said Shanahan. “The benefit will be an extremely active drug all the way from Folkman’s lab.” He expects it to be ready in six years.
There are a handful of other local companies targeting tumors with anti-angiogenesis compounds. Ariad in Cambridge has two drug candidates in Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials, and is partnering with Merck & Co. Inc. of New Jersey around one of them, said spokeswoman Maria Cantor. Ariad raised $24.3 million last month, as well.
Woburn-based Arqule announced this month it had expanded its clinical development program for its ARQ 197 small-molecule inhibitor to include hepatocellular carcinoma. Last December, Cambridge-based TransMolecular, which uses scorpion venom as the basis of its anti-angiogenesis technology, won orphan-drug fast-track status for its 131I-TM601 melanoma treatment.
Formulations vary. Startup Paloma Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Jamaica Plain is developing its platform for both eye and cancer treatments. According to CEO David Sherris, his company has a unique approach: Its drugs are agents which, in a single molecule, attack angiogenesis and tumor growth. Paloma has raised $7 million.
Not all the platform’s startups are solely attacking cancer. Beverly-based CellCeutix Pharma Inc. is doing preclinical testing of anti-angiogenesis treatments for cancer, heart disease and diabetes, said Krishna Menon, president and chief scientific officer. Cambridge-based anti-obesity startup Zafgen Inc. is using the platform to attack the cells that supply blood to fat cells; it raised $14 million last fall in a Series B round.
However, despite all this activity, Trusheim urged a bit of caution.
“(The technology is) still new, and very few products have actually been introduced. There’s still a whole lot to learn and understand.”
Anti-angiogenesis in New England: What’s old is new
Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge
Deforolimus interferes with cell growth and division in cancer
ArQule Inc., Woburn
ARQ 197 blocks the activity of enzyme c-Met
CellCeutix Pharma Inc., Beverly
Drugs treat cancer, heart disease and diabetes
Paloma Pharmaceuticals Inc., Jamaica Plain
Drugs attack both angiogenesis and the tumor itself
SynDevRx Inc., Cambridge
Caplostatin targets an enzyme that controls vascular cells
TransMolecular Inc., Cambridge
TM601 melanoma treatment uses scorpion venom
Zafgen Inc., Cambridge
Targets blood vessels that feed fat cells
RSS Feeds
Comments
Please Login/Register to post comments.
No comments have been added or approved.