Trovagene has entered into an exclusive patent license agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Under the agreement, Trovagene has exclusive rights to develop combination therapies that include anti-androgen or androgen antagonist and a Polo-like Kinase (PLK) inhibitor for the treatment of cancer. The exclusive license agreement is part of the Company's strategy to explore the efficacy of Onvansertib, its first-in-class, 3rd generation, highly-selective, oral PLK1 inhibitor, in combination with anti-androgen drugs in cancers including prostate, breast, pancreatic, lung and gastrointestinal.
"There is a need for new therapies that effectively treat cancers that depend on internal androgen signaling, such as castration-resistance prostate cancer, as well as cancers which overexpress androgen receptor (AR), or are otherwise dependent on the synthesis of steroid hormones for their growth, such as some breast cancers," said Dr. Michael Yaffe, Director, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, David H. Koch Professor in Science, Professor of Biological Engineering, and member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. "We are excited to see that our in-vitro and in-vivo preclinical research, demonstrating a unique synergistic effect with the combination of PLK inhibitors and anti-androgens, has culminated in a Phase 2 trial of Onvansertib in combination with Zytiga® (abiraterone acetate) for the treatment of metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC), which is being conducted by the Harvard Medical Cancer Centers."
The discovery by Dr. Jesse Patterson, a post-doc in Dr. Yaffe's laboratory, and resulting patent, around the unique synergy between anti-androgen and PLK inhibitor combination therapies for inducing tumor cell death, may represent a new paradigm for using this combination of drugs across a number of cancer types. The combination therapies can be used to improve the initial efficacy of one or the other of the active agents, or to re-sensitize cells that have become resistant to one of the other active agents when administered alone.
"We are excited about this patent license agreement, as well as our ongoing collaboration and research with Dr. Yaffe and his team at MIT," said Dr. Thomas Adams, Executive Chairman of Trovagene. "We are also working with Dr. Yaffe's research group to further characterize and develop a predictive biomarker that will enable us to identify patients most likely to respond to treatment."