Thats correct buc. And very exciting, because we don't know yet (but will very soon!) who the big pharma is that is in on this one. We know Pfizer is in at Beth Isreal, who knows if its Roche or some other large player that wants in on the action in Europe? Regardless, with possible competing trials going on at the same time with co-ops at different locations, things are going to heat up FAST when these trials start to get some of the positive results that htey should.
For your reference here is the PR discussing the Leukemia trial:
Cellceutix Corporation (OTCBB: CTIX) (the “Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering small molecule drugs for hard to treat diseases, is pleased to announce that it is in discussions with a major university (the “University”) in Europe wishing to conduct clinical trials on Kevetrin™, the Company’s flagship anti-cancer compound. The University, which is ranked in the top ten of universities in Europe by review firm 4 International Colleges & Universities ( www.4icu.org ) wishes to test Kevetrin™ as a combination therapy for leukemia with drugs proprietary to one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Pursuant to a confidentiality agreement, Cellceutix cannot identify the University or the pharmaceutical company at this time.
“It seems that the potential of Kevetrin is starting to circle the globe. This University has a distinguished reputation in hematological diseases,” commented Dr. Krishna Menon, Chief Scientific Officer at Cellceutix. “Our patent has been published. Only when a compound looks extremely promising do major pharmaceutical companies and universities approach a smaller company like Cellceutix. This gives us a great sense of confirmation as to the potential of Kevetrin and validation in our beliefs about the possible robust number of indications where it could provide a therapeutic benefit.”
“Effectively, a University sponsored phase 1 clinical trial on blood cancers will save Cellceutix millions of dollars,” added Cellceutix Chief Executive Officer Leo Ehrlich. “We feel that we are in a phenomenal position with our own clinical trials on solid tumors being conducted at Dana-Farber and Beth Israel Deaconess, additional studies on melanoma and renal cancers at Beth Israel Deaconess in combination with Pfizer drugs, and now this prestigious University wishing to host additional clinical trials on blood cancers in combination with drugs from another of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The recent valuations paid for early stage blood cancer therapeutics makes this a very hot segment in biotech and potentially makes the Kevetrin franchise even more valuable.”
Therapies for blood cancers such as leukemia are in great demand because of few viable treatments on the market today and a limited number of candidates showing strong promise in clinical research. Acquisitions this year by major pharmas have demonstrated this demand and value of new compounds. In January, Celgene Corporation acquired Avila Therapeutics in a deal valued up to $925 million. Celgene’s focus of the acquisition was AVL-292 as a treatment for patients with B-cell blood cancers. AVL-292 was in Phase I clinical trials at the time of acquisition.
On August 30, a Johnson & Johnson unit, Janssen Biotech Inc., signed a deal to obtain global license rights to blood cancer compound daratumumab from Danish pharmaceutical group Genmab. All told, the deal could total $1.1 billion for Genmab for a drug that is presently in phase I/II clinical trials.
Very exciting, and we can't lose sight of how big of a deal this could be once we know the details of who/when, as it will heat up the competition with multiple big pharmas looking over their shoulders and seeing the benefit of Kevetrin with their respective drugs. Huge huge huge.
