Geron And Kyowa Forge Cancer Pact

Geron Corp of the USA and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo of Japan are aiming to collaborate on the development of telomerase inhibitors, which may have a utility in the treatment of various forms of cancer. Geron will receive up to $30 million from Kyowa in milestone payments, and will also receive royalties on any eventual anticancer product sales. In return, Kyowa gains exclusive marketing and manufacturing rights in Japan and other major Asian countries.

The association of telomerase with cancer was first described last year in human ovarian cancer cell lines. Subsequent work has demonstrated that telomerase activity is present in germline tissues, but not in differentiated somatic tissues (with the possible exception of certain hematopoietic cell lineages). Telomerase maintains essential genetic elements at the end of chromosomes in dividing cells, and in the absence of this enzyme replicative integrity is lost, with the resulting daughter cells having a limited lifespan. Reactivation of the enzyme is thought to be a necessary event in cell immortalization, and hence most cancers.

Reporting at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting in March, scientists from Geron said that they had generated preliminary data which suggest that inhibition of telomerase has the potential to be a safe, effective and general anticancer therapy. The firm has now started experiments to inhibit telomerase in vivo with antisense oligonucleotides and compounds identified in a high throughput screen for activity against the enzyme.