Samjin licenses piperazine series of anticancer compounds to ImQuest

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, April 26 - Samjin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said Wednesday that is signed an exclusive worldwide license with ImQuest Pharmaceuticals for the development and commercialization of its anticancer agents.

The compounds are a completely new and chemically novel series of anticancer agents possessing a high potency and superior safety profile, company officials said in a news release.

According to the agreement, ImQuest said it will complete final preclinical and clinical drug development programs for the agents.

Samjin said it will retain the rights to manufacture and distribute FDA-approved cancer drugs from the series in The Republic of Korea.

The piperazine series has been shown in both cell-based and small-animal model anticancer studies performed by the National Cancer Institute and Samjin to have significant and diverse biological antitumor activities.

Within the complete repertoire of 105 anticancer small molecules included in the licensing agreement, inhibitory action has been observed against colon, prostate, breast, lung and immune cell tumors, officials said.

ImQuest said it expects to file Investigational New Drug applications with the FDA in 2007 for the treatment of prostate, colon and leukemia cancers and to develop research programs to evaluate suppression of breast and lung cancer.

The drug development capabilities of ImQuest will be used to rapidly progress the lead small molecules through the remaining IND-enabling studies and into human clinical trials, officials said.

The piperazine analogs have been shown to have potent antiproliferative activity against colon, prostate, breast, lung and leukemia tumors in cell-based assays performed by the National Cancer Institute.

Additional studies by Samjin have demonstrated the ability of the lead piperazines to suppress and eliminate experimental tumors in small animal models, officials said.

ImQuest is a privately held biopharmaceutical company located in Frederick, Md., specializing in early stage drug development of novel compounds to treat infectious disease and cancer.

Samjin is a leading pharmaceutical company in Seoul, Korea.

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