New Haven oncology biotech Cybrexa Therapeutics said Wednesday it has inked an agreement to work with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on developing Cybrexa’s tumor-targeting drug, CBX-12.
Under terms of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Cybrexa and the NCI will collaborate on pre-clinical and potential clinical development of the drug. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Cybrexa President and CEO Per Hellsund called the agreement a validation of Cybrexa’s technology that will allow the startup to significantly expand its clinical development program.
Cybrexa will initially work with NCI on preclinical studies and move the drug into human testing if those studies support clinical development, Cybrexa said. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Collaborating with the NCI on the development of CBX-12 may allow testing of its therapeutic potential by some of the world’s leading oncology researchers,” Hellsund said in a statement. “This collaboration also dramatically expands our ability to conduct clinical trials in a wide number of indications, and in combination with other therapies such as immuno-oncology and PARP inhibitors.”
The drug is based on Cybrexa’s alphalex technology developed at Yale and the University of Rhode Island, which aims to deliver powerful cancer-fighting drugs into tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.
It features a molecule that forms a corkscrew-like structure when it comes into contact with the acidic environment of cancer cells. The structure then drills into the tumor cell to deposit the anti-cancer agent without impacting surrounding healthy cells.
Based in Science Park, Cybrexa was founded in 2017 by Yale physician-scientists Dr. Ranjit Bindra and Dr. Peter Glazer, along with Connecticut serial entrepreneurs Hellsund, Kevin Rakin and Kevin Didden.
The biotech filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the Food and Drug Administration last Friday seeking permission to begin human testing against advanced solid tumors. If approved, it expects to start trials the first half of this year.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
