FDA clears Astex' IND for novel cancer drug

Cambridge, UK-based Astex Therapeutics, the fragment-based drug discovery and development company, says that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved its Investigational New Drug application for the clinical development of its proprietary aurora kinase inhibitor, AT9283, for the treatment of cancer. AT9283 was discovered and developed internally using Astex' fragment-based drug discovery platform, Pyramid.

This is Astex' second IND approval in less than 12 months; the company's lead compound, AT7519, is already in Phase I trials in the USA and UK. An initial Phase I study on AT9283 in hematological cancers will be conducted at one of the world's leading oncology centers in the USA, and the company plans to initiate additional studies in North America and Europe in patients with solid tumors during the second half of the year.