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Enzon Enrolls First Patient in Phase 1 Study of Its HIF-1 Alpha Antagonist
Study to examine safety and tolerability in solid tumors and lymphoma

03 Apr 2007 - Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that the first patient has been enrolled in its clinical study of the HIF-1 alpha antagonist (EZN-2968). The open-label, non-randomized study is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of the HIF-1 alpha antagonist in 30 to 40 patients with advanced solid tumors or lymphoma.
 
Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) is a key regulator of a large number of genes important in cancer biology, such as angiogenesis, cell proliferation, apoptosis and cell invasion. HIF-1 alpha is low in normal cells, but reaches high intracellular concentrations in a variety of cancers and is strongly correlated with poor prognosis and resistance to therapy. Drugs targeting HIF-1 alpha thus have the potential to target multiple cancer processes.
 
Enzon licensed the HIF-1 alpha antagonist from Santaris in July 2006 along with the Survivin antagonist and six additional proprietary product candidates created using the Locked Nucleic Acid technology platform, all directed against novel cancer targets selected by Enzon.