SuperGen Receives Clearance to Begin Clinical Trials With SGI-1776, a PIM Inhibitor

From International Business Times:

SuperGen, Inc. a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery anddevelopment of novel cancer therapies, today announced that it has receivedclearance to initiate clinical trials with SGI-1776, an inhibitor of Pimkinases. The clearance of its Original Investigational New Drug Application("IND") triggers a $5.2 million milestone payment to the former stockholdersof Montigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The milestone payment will consist of $2.8million in cash payments and the issuance of approximately $2.4 million inequity, representing approximately 1.5 million shares of SuperGen commonstock.
SuperGen will initiate a Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the safety,tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of SGI-1776, a novel, orallyadministered, small molecule anticancer compound. The first in human clinicaltrial program will enroll patients with solid tumors with specific emphasis onhormone refractory prostate cancer and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.These solid tumor types have been reported to overexpress the Pim kinasefamily of proteins at a high frequency. Overexpression of Pim-1 kinase hasbeen shown to be a marker of poor prognosis in these tumors. A second PhaseI/II study is being planned in patients with refractory leukemias in which Pimkinases are also overexpressed, and correlated with poor prognosis and drugresistance.