Array BioPharma gets $1 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca for MEK work

By Ted A. Knutson

Washington, Jan. 24 - Array BioPharma Inc. and AstraZeneca plc selected an additional clinical candidate for their MEK small molecule anticancer program, triggering a $1 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca to Array.

MEK is a critical enzyme at the intersection of several biological pathways that regulates cell proliferation and survival as part of the ras/raf/MEK/erk pathway.

Constitutive activation of this pathway has been implicated in many cancers, including lung, pancreatic, colon, melanoma and thyroid cancer caused by cancer-associated, mutational activation of B-raf and ras proteins.

MEK inhibition is an attractive anti-cancer strategy as it has the potential to block inappropriate signal transduction regardless of the upstream position of the oncogenic aberration, the companies said.

"We are pleased that our collaboration with AstraZeneca has yielded an additional high quality development candidate," said Kevin Koch, Array president and chief scientific officer, in a press release "Our first proprietary compound, ARRY-142886, continues to make good progress in phase 1b. We believe the data generated in this study will support more advanced clinical testing of this promising compound."

AstraZeneca is a London health care business engaged in research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of health care services.

Based in Boulder, Colo., Array BioPharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on cancer and inflammatory disease.

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