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Posts tagged ‘Tyrosine Kinase’

Insights into BRAF resistance in melanoma lead to potential new drug targets

April 19th, 2011

Daedalus

Melanoma is a common form of skin cancer in which 60% of patients have the V600E mutation of the serine/threonine kinase B-RAF (BRAF)

Melanomas with a V600E BRAF mutation are dependent on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and have been shown to respond to inhibition of the RAF and MEK signaling pathway.

PLX4032 (vemurafenib) is a B-RAF(V600E) inhibitor that has achieved some spectacular results.

However, resistance to BRAF inhibitors such as PLX4032 occurs, so understanding the mechanism of BRAF resistance is key to finding new druggable targets that may overcome this.

Sally Church has written one of her most insightful posts of 2011 on Pharma Strategy Blog that discusses recent research on BRAF resistance to melanoma.

In a post entitled, “COT drives resistance to PLX4032 through MAPK reactivation”, Sally discusses results published in a Nature Letter.

She also reviews the recent plenary talk by Keith Flaherty at the recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and provides insights on the next generation of BRAF inhibitors.

Sally concludes that it looks like “metastatic melanoma will be a hot topic at ASCO.” You can read more about new products in development for melanoma on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Can Brian Druker develop another Gleevec at Blueprint Medicines?

April 12th, 2011

Daedalus

A venture capital firm in Boston yesterday bet $40M in first round financing that Dr Druker and his partners can repeat the success of Gleevec/Glivec with a new Boston/Cambridge life sciences start-up company, Blueprint Medicines.

If Daedalus had money to invest, a wager on Dr Druker would be as good as any in the biotechnology industry.  After the successful development of Gleevec/Glivec, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that Drs Druker & Lydon were instrumental in developing with Novartis for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), it’s hard not to believe that they cannot do it again.

Icarus Consultants’ Sally Church worked closely with Dr Druker while at Novartis Oncology. Starting in oncology new products she saw the potential of STI-571, and subsequently took the product to market in the U.S. market as Gleevec. We wish him well, and should Blueprint Medicines need any commercial, marketing strategy consulting services, we hope he’ll call us icon smile Can Brian Druker develop another Gleevec at Blueprint Medicines? .

You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.