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Arlington, VA | Monday, January 12, 2009

Champions Biotechnology and Concordia Pharmaceuticals Establish Royalty Agreement for Novel Oncology Drug

Oct 25 2011 11:29 AM

Champions Biotechnology, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CSBR), today announced that it has entered into a royalty agreement with Concordia Pharmaceuticals for the use of Salirasib, Concordia’s novel compound for the treatment of cancer, in combination with another targeted drug. Under the terms of the agreement, Champions will use its Biomerk Tumorgraft™ Preclinical Platform to evaluate a combination therapy indication for Salirasib, a RAS antagonist. This agreement modifies an earlier preclinical services agreement between the companies and now provides royalty rights for Champions Biotechnology for a specific combination therapy indication for Salirasib in the event that required milestones are achieved.

“This is a further example of our ability to leverage our preclinical technology to create high potential for Champions Biotechnology while enhancing the value of drugs for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,” said Doug Burkett, Ph.D., President of Champions Biotechnology, Inc. “Based on our predictive Biomerk Tumorgraft platform, it is our intent to build a low attrition pipeline of cancer drugs that we own, co-own or to which we have royalty rights. We are very pleased to enter into this promising arrangement with Concordia Pharmaceuticals.”

About Salirasib

Salirasib is a novel, orally available, targeted Ras inhibitor being developed for treatment of a wide range of malignancies including pancreatic, lung, colon and other cancers. Salirasib is not a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI) or Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) antagonist; Salirasib appears to inhibit Ras signaling by dislodging all isoforms of Ras from galectin membrane binding sites. Salirasib is the first targeted molecule to demonstrate an ability to reduce total Ras protein levels (both wild-type and mutated) in primary human tumors.

Clinical studies have been and are being performed at recognized Centers of Excellence, including, M.D. Anderson (safety, pharmacokinetic and food effect studies in both solid tumor and hematologic malignancies), Johns Hopkins University (a Phase I/II study dosing Salirasib + Gemcitabine for the treatment of newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer patients) and Memorial Sloan-Kettering (a Phase II trial treating both treatment naïve and previously treated lung cancer patients with Salirasib mono-therapy).

 

About Champions Oncology, Inc.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (formerly Champions Biotechnology, Inc) is engaged in the development of advanced technology solutions and services to personalize the development and use of oncology drugs. The Company’s Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform is a novel approach to personalizing cancer care based upon the implantation of primary human tumors in immune deficient mice followed by propagation of the resulting engraftments, or Tumorgrafts™, in a manner that preserves the biological characteristics of the original human tumor. The Company uses this technology in conjunction with related services to offer solutions for two customer groups: Personalized Oncology Solutions (“POS”) in which physicians and patients looking for information help guide the development of personalized treatment plans, and Translational Oncology Solutions (“TOS”) in which pharmaceutical and biotech companies seeking personalized approaches to drug development can lower the cost and increase the speed of developing new drugs and increasing the adoption of existing drugs. The Company’s Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform consists of processes, physical tumors and information that we use to personalize the development and use of oncology drugs. The Company is building its Tumorgraft™ Technology Platform through the procurement, development and characterization of numerous Tumorgrafts™ within each of several cancer types. Tumorgrafts™ are procured through agreements with a number of institutions in the U.S. and overseas as well as through its POS business. The Tumorgrafts™ are developed and tested through agreement with a United States-based preclinical facility.

The Company provides POS to oncologists by establishing and administering expert tumor panels for their patients to analyze medical records and test results, to assist in understanding conventional and experimental options and to identify and arrange for testing, analysis and study of the patients’ cancer tissues, as appropriate. Additionally, the Company offers Personalized Tumorgraft™ development, drug studies and genome sequencing as part of its POS whereby physicians can evaluate the effects of cancer drugs on their patients’ tumorgrafts and understand the genetic make-up of their patient’s tumor enabling them to better select treatment regimens that may be efficacious to the patient

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995) that inherently involve risk and uncertainties. Champions Oncology generally uses words such as “believe,” “may,” “could,” “will,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. One should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements for many unforeseen factors. See Champions Oncology’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2011 for a discussion of such risks, uncertainties and other factors. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and Champions Oncology’s future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in Champions Oncology’s expectations, except as required by law.

References:

  1. Hidalgo M et al. Activity of gemcitabine in direct patient derived xenografts predicts clinical outcome: validation of an in vivo model for drug development. J Clin Oncol 27:15s, 2009 (suppl; abstr 4528)
  2. Hidalgo M et al. A Pilot Study of Treatment Guided by Personalized Tumorgrafts in Patients with Advanced Cancer. Mol Cancer Ther August 2011 10:1311-1316
  3. Rubio-Viqueira B, Jimeno A, Cusatis G, et al. An in vivo platform for translational drug development in pancreatic cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2006;12:4652-4661.
  4. Champions data on file.