InterMed Discovery achieves Proof-of-Principle for IMD-026260

Small molecule anti-cancer drug candidate based on Hif-1 modulation

07-Aug-2008

InterMed Discovery GmbH announced that it has established proof-of-principle in a pre-clinical study for its optimized lead compound IMD-026260, an anti-cancer drug candidate. IMD-026260 is a fully synthetic small molecule derived from a natural product lead compound. The optimized lead displays an outstanding cytotoxic potential and exhibits a long half-life. IMD-026260 appears to be an inhibitor of Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (Hif-1) dependent transcriptional activity. Hif-1 activates the transcription of genes that are involved in crucial aspects of cancer biology, including angiogenesis, glucose metabolism, cell survival, and invasiveness.

IMD-026260 initially demonstrated very high in vitro efficacy in a broad panel of tumor cell monolayer assays as well as in colony forming assays. From these tests, high scores of tumor selectivity were observed towards a variety of cancer cell lines derived from human prostate, lung, colon and uterus tumors. Subsequently, xenograft studies proved potent in vivo efficacy at single-digit mg/kg dosage levels.

"Based on the high cytotoxic potential and innovative mechanism of action, IMD-026260 is a promising drug candidate not only for the treatment of lung, breast, prostate, colon and uterine cancers, but also for the treatment of metastases," said Bernard Becker, Managing Director of InterMed Discovery.

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