Presage Biosciences and Millennium Enter Into Cancer Research Agreement
-- Utilizes Presage Platform for Selection & Optimization of Oncology Drug Candidates --
SEATTLE, & CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Apr 06, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Presage Biosciences, a leader in identifying clinically viable oncology drug combinations, today announced that it has entered into a cancer research agreement with Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. The research agreement will provide Millennium with access to Presage's proprietary technology platform to enable non-clinical identification of effective novel oncology drug combinations in solid tumors.
Under terms of the agreement, Presage will receive upfront fees and research funding as well as development and regulatory milestones related to identification of successful drug combinations.
The patented Presage platform is the only known technology that allows for the comparison of multiple drugs in the same tumor within a preclinical model. The technology has potential for application across the drug development process, from target identification to clinical trial patient selection.
"One of Millennium's goals is to advance the treatment of cancer by developing novel therapeutic combinations," said Joseph B. Bolen, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Millennium. "Presage's technology platform allows us to obtain in-depth non-clinical in vivo data that is typically difficult to gather by conventional approaches. It is our hope that the Presage platform will help us to more rapidly and accurately prioritize our development of novel combinations."
"The Presage platform provides previously inaccessible knowledge about interactions between drugs and living tumors, allowing for the selection and optimization of promising drug combinations much earlier in the drug development process," said Nathan Caffo, President of Presage Biosciences. "We are pleased to establish this partnership with Millennium, a leader in truly innovative oncology research, to identify drug candidates for treatment of solid tumor cancers."
About the Presage Platform
Presage Biosciences' patented technology platform offers an unprecedented method for simultaneously analyzing multiple cancer drug candidates and drug combinations within a single living tumor. The Presage platform enables the placement of multiple "threads" of candidate treatments through the skin and directly into the tumor. Such controlled localization allows for the identification of drug response directly attributable to the drug versus intrinsic cell death. These precise microdose bands provide the ability to analyze drug effects across the span of a living tumor while capturing the heterogeneity of cancer cells.
About Millennium
Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, a leading biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Mass., markets a first-in-class proteasome inhibitor in the US, and has a robust clinical development pipeline of global product candidates. Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. in May, 2008. The Company's research, development and commercialization activities are focused in oncology. Additional information about Millennium and Takeda are available through their respective websites.
About Presage Biosciences
Presage Biosciences is a biotechnology company dedicated to improving the cancer drug development process so that patients can receive the most effective treatment possible. Presage partners with oncology-focused pharmaceutical companies through strategic alliances to provide previously inaccessible in vivo data to validate novel targets, promote drug candidates to the right indications, and discover effective drug combinations. Presage has developed the world's only known technology to perform simultaneous comparisons of multiple drugs within a living tumor. Presage is privately held and based in Seattle. For more information, visit www.presagebio.com .
SOURCE: Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company
Presage Contact:
Rathbun Communications
Julie Rathbun, 206-769-9219
[email protected]
or
Millennium Contact:
Manisha Pai, 617-551-7877
[email protected]