CAMBRIDGE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–November 22, 2013–
Horizon Discovery (Horizon) has won “Licensing Deal of the Year” at the Scrip Awards 2013, for their agreement with AstraZeneca to explore Horizon’s first-in-class kinase target program HD-001 as a means of developing novel therapies for multiple cancer types. The Scrip Awards are highly prestigious, recognizing excellence in both pharma and biotech companies and those firms that support them.
The HD-001 program has the potential to be developed into a treatment based on modulation of a novel kinase. This target has been shown to be mutated in a range of cancer types including colon and lung. Importantly, the target has also been shown to play a key role in K-Ras mutant tumours. K-Ras is mutated in up to 40% of all cancer types causing resistance to many of the available targeted therapeutics and as a result is associated with poor patient outcomes, which makes the development of molecular targeted therapies against the gene a significant unmet need. A case study on the development of the HD-001 program can be found here: www.horizondiscovery.com/media/item/67
Dr Chris Torrance, CSO and leader of the HD-001 program at Horizon, commented: “We were excited to partner this program with AstraZeneca, and we have made good progress since the start of the collaboration. We are delighted that the quality of the program has now also been recognised by Scrip, and are honored to accept the award.”
ENDS
About Horizon Discovery www.horizondiscovery.com/
Horizon Discovery Limited (Horizon) is a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Using GENESISTM, Horizon is able to alter any endogenous gene sequence of a human or mammalian cell-line quickly, reliably and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes.
Horizon has applied GENESIS to create over 500 X-MAN™ cell lines, the world’s first source of genetically-defined and patient-relevant human cell lines, accurately modeling the disease-causing mutations found in cancer patients. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by academic and industry leaders to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, leading to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently-available and future drug treatments. This enables the design of shorter, more focused, and less expensive clinical trials, ultimately providing the tools to identify the ‘right drugs’ for the ‘right patients’ based upon the unique genetic mutations that define their disease.
In addition to X-MAN cell lines, Horizon provides GENESIS and X-MAN™ derived products and services, with industrial application in: bio-pharmaceutical process optimization; clinical diagnostic development; drug discovery & development; and the provision of reference standards for genomic-based clinical research platforms.
GENESIS and X-MAN are registered trademarks of Horizon Discovery Limited.
Media enquiries:
Zyme Communications
Katie Odgaard
Tel: +44 (0)7787 502 947
Email: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
or
At Horizon:
Dr. Darrin Disley
Email: d.disley@horizondiscovery.com
