Antisoma to evaluate rainforest anticancer compounds in deal with EcoBiotics

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, March 7 - Antisoma plc and EcoBiotics Ltd. said Tuesday that they signed an agreement under which Antisoma will evaluate and have an option to license early stage anticancer compounds from EcoBiotics.

Antisoma said it will choose up to three compounds from the EcoBiotics portfolio to evaluate during the next year, according to a news release.

If these evaluations yield positive results, Antisoma said it will have rights to license up to two of the compounds for development as anticancer drugs on pre-agreed terms.

EcoBiotics said it has a diverse portfolio of structurally defined and patent-protected molecules derived from tropical rainforest plants. A number of these molecules have already demonstrated anticancer activity in early preclinical assessments.

All those evaluated by Antisoma will be small molecules that can be made by chemical synthesis, officials said.

"The success of our search and develop business model is based on our ability to find promising anticancer drugs to which we can apply our development expertise. Evaluation deals like the one we have signed with EcoBiotics add to the diversity of potential inputs to our pipeline and nicely complement our ongoing activity in licensing single preclinical and early clinical stage drugs," Antisoma chief executive officer Glyn Edwards said in the release.

EcoBiotics is a privately held Brisbane, Australia-based company that specializes in early development of new pharmaceuticals from Queensland's unique tropical rainforests with a focus on oncology, inflammation, infectious diseases and parasite control.

Antisoma is a London biopharmaceutical company that develops novel products for the treatment of cancer.

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