Tag Archives: MTC

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

ARIAD Presents New Preclinical Data Showing Ponatinib is a Potent Inhibitor of RET and FGFR, Two Onc

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

ARIAD Presents New Preclinical Data Showing Ponatinib is a Potent Inhibitor of RET and FGFR, Two Oncogenic Drivers of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NAS: ARIA) today announced the presentation of preclinical data on ponatinib (Iclusig™) , at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2013, in Washington. In separate studies, ponatinib is shown to potently inhibit RET, a clinically proven oncogenic driver of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and FGFR, which is commonly mutated in endometrial, lung and other cancers.

The first preclinical study, “Ponatinib is a highly-potent inhibitor of activated variants of RET found in MTC and NSCLC,” shows that ponatinib inhibits naturally occurring activating mutants of RET found in MTC and NSCLC at clinically achievable plasma concentrations. The potency of ponatinib was found to substantially exceed that of other approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors with RET activity. These results provide strong support for the clinical evaluation of ponatinib in patients with RET-driven cancers.

“The unique design features that allow ponatinib to overcome mutation-based resistance in CML, including the gatekeeper mutation, also apply to its activity against its other tyrosine kinase targets including RET, FGFR and KIT,” stated Timothy P. Clackson, Ph.D., president of research and development and chief scientific officer at ARIAD. “These preclinical data strongly support moving forward with evaluating ponatinib in RET-positive cancers, and we look forward to the start of a Phase 2 investigator-sponsored trial in patients with RET-positive NSCLC in this second quarter of 2013.”

In the second preclinical study, “Ponatinib potently inhibits the activity of mutant variants of FGFR commonly found in endometrial, lung and other cancers,” the ability of ponatinib to inhibit a broad panel of naturally occurring mutant variants of FGFR1, 2, 3, and 4 was evaluated. Ponatinib potently blocked a variety of mutant variants of FGFR, with particularly promising activity against mutant variants of FGFR2 that have been observed in endometrial and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the lung. Specifically, ponatinib inhibits the eight mutants that make up more than 90 percent of the mutations observed in endometrial cancer patients, and six mutants observed in SCC at clinically achievable plasma concentrations. Ponatinib also shows encouraging activity against FGFR1/3 fusion proteins found in glioblastoma multiforme. These data support clinical evaluation of ponatinib in FGFR-driven cancers, including a Phase 2 investigator-sponsored trial of ponatinib in patients with SCCs that is currently underway and enrolling patients.

About ARIAD
…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Buy, Sell, or Hold: Exelixis

Leave a comment

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

When considering any stock for your portfolio, don’t be swayed by just the positives. Examine its pros and cons, and decide whether it’s possible upside outweighs its risks. Let’s take a look at Exelixis today, and see why you might want to buy, sell, or hold it.

Founded in 1994 and based in South San Francisco, Calif., Exelixis is a biotech company specializing in small-molecule cancer-fighting therapies. The company has a market capitalization of about $850 million, and its stock is down about 18% over the past year and down nearly 4%, on average, annually over the past decade.

Buy
A key reason to consider Exelixis is the business it’s in: health care. With our planet’s population growing, getting older, and living longer, demand should only grow for medical products and services.

Beyond that, Exelixis stands above many other biotechs because it actually has an FDA-approved product, Cometriq, which treats metastatic medullary thyroid cancer, or MTC. The drug aced its trials, and bulls think that it might eventually be approved to treat other conditions. It’s already in trials addressing a wide range of cancers. One hope is that it might treat prostate cancer, which affects many men – with more than 200,000 cases expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year.

Another reason one might buy a company such as Exelixis is over speculation that it might be acquired by a bigger company, as often happens with small biotechs. That can be great when it happens, as purchases tend to happen at premium prices, giving the stock a nice boost. But it’s not guaranteed that a buyout will happen, and there’s a downside if it does, too – you’ll no longer own a smallish, potentially fast-growing company. Instead, you’ll probably own shares of the big acquirer, which isn’t likely to grow as briskly.

Exelixis has partnered with a handful of big pharmaceutical companies on a number of compounds in development. It has licensed Foretinib to GlaxoSmithKline , for example, and the drug, which might fight breast cancer  among other things, is in trials. Exelixis discovered the SAR245408  compound and licensed it to Sanofi, which has trials under way for it to treat endometrial cancer, among other things.

The company’s financial condition seems sound, too, as it recently had more than $400 million in cash and short-term investments, and it burned up $126 million in free cash flow over the past year. Its latest earnings report was disappointing, though.

Sell
One reason to stay away from Exelixis and other biotech companies is that most of us know very little about biotechnology and related fields. Thus, it can be especially hard for us to discern which companies are best poised for success, and what the risks are for each. It can make a lot of sense to just steer clear, or to invest in a bunch of biotech companies at once, via an ETF. SPDR Biotech , for example, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

ARIAD Announces Presentations of Preclinical Data at American Association for Cancer Research Annual

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

ARIAD Announces Presentations of Preclinical Data at American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NAS: ARIA) today announced its schedule of preclinical data presentations to be made at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2013, taking place Saturday, April 6 through Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Washington.

Listed below are the details of presentations at AACR that describe ARIAD’s product candidates. There will be four presentations of data on ARIAD‘s targeted therapies, Iclusig™ (ponatinib) and AP26113; and one invited talk:

Title: Ponatinib is a highly potent inhibitor of activated variants of RET found in MTC and NSCLC
Date & Time: Monday, April 8, 1:00-5:00 p.m. (Poster)
Abstract: #2084
Location: Hall A-C, Poster Section 38

Title: Ponatinib potently inhibits the activity of mutant variants of FGFR commonly found in endometrial, lung and other cancers
Date & Time: Monday, April 8, 1:00-5:00 p.m. (Poster)
Abstract: #2083
Location: Hall A-C, Poster Section 38

Title: Ponatinib, a pan-BCR-ABL inhibitor, potently inhibits key activating and drug-resistant KIT mutants found in GIST
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 9, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (Poster)
Abstract: #3394
Location: Hall A-C, Poster Section 42

Title: Design and development of ponatinib, a pan-BCR-ABL inhibitor for CML
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 9, 9:30-10:00 a.m. (Major symposium)
Presentation: #SY19-04
Location: Salon A-B, East Hall

Title: AP26113 possesses pan-inhibitory activity versus crizotinib-resistant ALK mutants and oncogenic ROS1 fusions
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 10, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (Poster)
Abstract: #5655
Location: Hall A-C, Poster Section 42

About ARIAD

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Lausanne, Switzerland, is an integrated global oncology company focused on transforming the lives of cancer patients with breakthrough medicines. ARIAD is working on new medicines to advance the treatment of various forms of chronic and acute leukemia, lung cancer and other difficult-to-treat cancers. ARIAD utilizes computational and structural approaches to design small-molecule drugs that overcome resistance to existing cancer medicines. For additional information, visit http://www.ariad.com or follow ARIAD on Twitter (@ARIADPharm).

ARIAD
For Investors<br …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance