Sunesis gets $500,000 milestone payment from Biogen for cancer treatment collaboration

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 7 - Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. said Wednesday that it has received a $500,000 milestone payment from Biogen Idec relating to the discovery of novel Raf kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.

"We are pleased by the continued progress being made by our teams and the joint research committee in the advancement of kinase inhibitors toward the clinic," Daniel Swisher, Sunesis' chief executive officer, said in the release.

Officials said the program is proceeding on course and the company anticipates selecting the first safety assessment candidates from the collaboration next year.

In September 2004, Sunesis and Biogen entered into a collaboration to discover and develop small molecule cancer therapeutics targeting kinases, a family of cell signaling enzymes that play a major role in the progression of cancer.

The milestone payment was triggered by identifying compounds with specific predetermined preclinical characteristics, officials said.

Sunesis is a South San Francisco, Calif.-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics.

Biogen is a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology company focused on oncology, neurology and immunology.

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