TUCSON, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AmpliMed Corporation, a cancer therapeutics company, announced today that it has entered into a license agreement with leading Korean-based pharmaceutical company Handok Pharmaceuticals for exclusive rights to its investigational cancer therapeutic Amplimexon® (imexon for injection) in Korea.
Under terms of the agreement, Handok will receive marketing and distribution rights to all cancer indications for Amplimexon in Korea and will pay AmpliMed an up-front fee plus additional payments based upon the achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones. Additional financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Handok, an ideal partner with extensive marketing experience, and provide the opportunity to deliver Amplimexon® to the Korean market,” said Robert T. Dorr, Ph.D., R.Ph., Chief Executive Officer of AmpliMed. “We are very encouraged by the clinical activity, tolerability and synergy with existing treatments demonstrated by Amplimexon in multiple clinical trials involving more than 300 cancer patients. In addition to our ongoing Phase 2 trial in pancreatic cancer, we plan to start a Phase 2 trial of Amplimexon in combination with taxotere in patients with non small cell lung cancer later this year.”
“Amplimexon® is poised to be a leading product in Handok’s cancer pipeline, and we anticipate this promising agent will improve the quality of life for cancer patients,” said Young-jin Kim, CEO of Handok Pharmaceuticals. “We look forward to this partnership with AmpliMed and to the future development and advancement of this very promising cancer treatment.”
Amplimexon is a small molecule drug that increases oxidative stress in tumor cells leading to mitochondrial damage and apoptosis (cell death). Results from early stage clinical trials of Amplimexon® have demonstrated promising results in patients with advanced melanoma, breast, lung, prostate and pancreatic cancer. Amplimexon also appears to be synergistic with a wide range of existing chemotherapeutic agents including docetaxel (Taxotere), gemcitabine (Gemzar), and dacarbazine (DTIC).
AmpliMed is currently conducting a Phase 2 randomized trial evaluating Amplimexon plus gemcitabine vs. gemcitabine plus placebo in approximately 124 chemotherapy naïve patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. Accrual in the trial is progressing well, and the company anticipates having survival results from the trial by the end of 2009. The ongoing Phase 2 trial will confirm and expand upon the evidence for clinical activity developed in a Phase 1 study.
About Handok Pharmaceuticals
Handok Pharmaceuticals is a Korean-based pharma company founded in the 1950s. In the 1970s, the company formed a strategic alliance with Roussel Uclaf and, on the diagnostic side, with Behring. In 2000, Handok formed a new strategic partnership with Sanofi-Aventis. Sales in 2007 amounted to $250 million and the company also has major GMP manufacturing capabilities. Handok is well established in Korea and has established a new alliance with YSP in Taiwan. For more information, visit the Handok website at www.handok.co.kr.
About AmpliMed Corporation
AmpliMed Corporation is a privately held company focused on the clinical development of chemotherapeutic agents for cancer. AmpliMed’s strategy is to develop anti-cancer drugs with novel mechanisms of action designed to overcome some of the limitations, such as myelosuppression, multi-drug resistance and cardiac toxicity, frequently associated with current cancer therapies. The company’s lead product, Amplimexon, is in Phase II clinical trials. For more information about AmpliMed, please visit www.amplimed.com.
AmpliMed, Amplimexon and Amplizone are United States trademarks of AmpliMed Corporation.
Contact:
Rathbun Communications for AmpliMed Julie Rathbun, 206-769-9219 julie@rathbuncomm.com
Source: AmpliMed Corporation
