Cabrellis Development Pipeline

Anthracyclines are among the most widely efficacious anticancer drugs in clinical use today. Compounds in this class include doxorubicin, daunorubicin and epirubicin. These drugs are all close analogues of each other and are all made semi-synthetically starting from natural products. However, using a natural product as the synthetic starting point has put significant constraints on the range of analogues that can be made.

Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals of Japan succeeded in making the world's first totally synthetic anthracycline drugs. The process allowed new chemistries to be exploited and new types of analogues to be created. The result of this work was Calsed™ (amrubicin HCL), a new compound that retained the broad activity of the anthracycline class but appears to have reduced or eliminated the prominent cardiotoxicity characteristic of the anthracyclines. Most importantly, clinical trial results in Japan demonstrated that Calsed™ has unique, striking activity in lung cancer unlike other anthracyclines. These data led to the regulatory approval of Calsed™ in Japan in December 2002, where it is now a marketed product.

Through its exclusive license to North American and European rights from Dainippon Sumitomo, Cabrellis has initiated Phase II development in small-cell lung cancer and looks to expand product development beyond the current effort in 2006.