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Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc. has taken in $15 million in a strategic investment from Celgene Corp., a potential partner or competitor in the treatment of blood cancers.
The strategic funding, however, contains no rights or options for Celgene to any Acetylon technology, the companies said in a release. Boston-based Acetylon will get a new board member in the form of Mark Alles, Celgene’s chief commercial officer, who said in a statement that “Acetylon has established itself as the leader in developing next generation, selective HDAC inhibitors for cancers as well as non-cancer disease indications.” HDAC stands for histone deacetylase, and the inhibitors Acetylon is working with could have uses in inflammatory disease and neurologic disease as well as cancer, the company said.
According to Walter C. Ogier, president and CEO of Acetylon, combining New Jersey-based Celgene’s myeloma drug Revlimid with Acetylon’s selective HDAC6 inhibitor ACY-1215 in clinical trials is “an exciting prospect for the treatment of patients with progressive disease.”
In September 2011, Acetylon started a Phase 1-2a clinical trial of ACY-1215 as a multiple myeloma treatment in patients with relapsed and relapsed-refractory multiple myeloma.
The company, which licensed its drug discovery platform and group of enzyme inhibitors from Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in March of 2010, closed on a $27 million Series B funding round in June. In July, Acetylon announced that it plans to move from its Albany Street location in Boston to the Seaport Center near the South Boston waterfront.
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