Allied Minds forms cancer drug arm with NYU School of Medicine

Allied Minds has launched a new subsidiary to develop potential cancer drugs from compounds developed by the New York University School of Medicine.

Allied's joint venture with pharma group Bristol-Myers Squibb, Allied-Bristol Life Sciences, has set up the subsidiary, called iβeCa Therapeutics, with a licensing agreement from NYU to develop a group of compounds that seem to reduce cancerous tumour growth.

The license to this technology will be held by iβeCa Therapeutics, which will focus on completing further research and pre-clinical characterization so that a development candidate can be progressed to investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies and beyond.

Focusing on the 'Wnt' signalling pathway that regulates cell function in the human body, the NYU compounds contain inhibitors of β-Catenin responsive transcription (iCRTs) that are able to reduce tumour growth by inhibiting the abnormal Wnt function in tumour cells.

The Wnt pathway plays a key role in the development and progression of a number of cancers affecting large numbers of patients.

The iβeCa subsidiary will to help continue discovery and development activities needed to identify candidates for human clinical testing.

NYU research associate professor Ramanuj Dasgupta said the work was at a critical point in its translation, "where the resources and expertise of the ABLS team will make the difference in bringing these novel cancer therapies to patients as quickly as possible".

The licensing agreement with NYU School of Medicine is the third in a series of discovery and development projects that Allied-Bristol Life Sciences is pursuing.