Busy week at Juno Therapeutics ends with takeover of RedoxTherapies
pharmafile | July 15, 2016 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | juno therapeutics, redoxtherapies, takeover, vipadenant
Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ: JUNO) has announced the acquisition of RedoxTherapies, adding its lead cancer drug candidate, vipadenant, to its portfolio.
The news comes after a very busy week for the US-based firm, which sent shares tumbling before recovering well. The FDA suspended their leukaemia drug trial after the death of several patients but then surprisingly lifted that hold and allowed the trial to continue soon after.
The upfront payment of $10 million in cash for RedoxTherapies may be supplemented in future upon the achievement of undisclosed clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Their lead drug candidate, vipadenant, is a small molecule adenosine A2a receptor antagonist that has the potential to disrupt important immunosuppressive pathways in the tumour microenvironment in certain cancers. Juno has indicated that it will explore this molecule in combination with its engineered T cell platform and may explore in other areas, also.
Hy Levitsky, Juno’s chief scientific officer, says: “Multiple approaches to overcoming the tumour microenvironment will be key in optimising the clinical benefit of engineered T cells, and T cells more broadly, in the treatment of cancer. Inhibiting the adenosine pathway is one of the most intriguing pathways in this important area of science, and we look forward to testing the hypothesis around this pathway clinically. We look forward to integrating this asset into our ongoing research and clinical efforts and exploring it in combination with product candidates from our portfolio.”
Sean Murray
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