Araxes Pharma enters into cancer drug development pact with Janssen Biotech

Published: 28-Feb-2013

To develop therapeutics for the treatment of cancer


Araxes Pharma, an affiliate of pharmaceutical incubator Wellspring Biosciences in San Diego, CA, is to develop therapeutics against a certain target for the treatment of cancer following the signing of a development agreement with Janssen Biotech.

Under the agreement, Araxes Pharma will advance its programme from Phase I to clinical proof-of-concept. Janssen Biotech will then take sole responsibility for the continued development and worldwide commercialisation of products arising under the agreement.

Araxes Pharma will receive an unspecified upfront payment and research and development funding and is eligible to receive milestone payments in addition to tiered royalties on the worldwide sales of products under the agreement.

‘We are delighted to work with Janssen on a very exciting approach for the treatment of patients with cancer,’ said Troy Wilson, President and CEO of Araxes Pharma. ‘Their sophisticated outlook and capabilities for development of molecularly-targeted therapeutics will enable us to accelerate development of our novel, high-quality small molecules.’

Araxes Pharma brings together a proven team of early drug developers. The scientific founders are Kevan Shokat, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at UCSF, and Frank McCormick, Professor and Director of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF.

Joining them in the new venture are Wilson, Yi Liu, CSO, and Pingda Ren, Senior VP of Chemistry.

Wilson, Liu, Ren and Shokat previously co-founded Intellikine, which discovered three drug candidates against the PI3K/mTOR pathway. In January 2012, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, the Takeda Oncology Company, acquired Intellikine for US$310m.

The co-founders recently reunited to form Wellspring Biosciences, a pharmaceutical incubator focused on the discovery and development of drugs targeting signal transduction networks for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.

Wellspring is organised as a drug discovery incubator, with its scientific programmes organised in separate, asset-centred affiliates, of which Araxes Pharma is the first to be publicly announced.

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