NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced that the company has been awarded a Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). This award will support the development of the company’s lead candidate, CBX-11, Cybrexa’s proprietary alphalex™ technology combined with the already-approved oral small molecule poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib, in combination with chemotherapy.
Per Hellsund, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cybrexa Therapeutics, stated, “We are extremely grateful to the NIH for this grant, the recognition of our science, and the importance of advancing the development of our new class of small molecule DNA repair inhibitors and DNA-damaging agents. In particular, this NIH grant will aid Cybrexa’s development of lead candidate, CBX-11, which we plan to enter into the clinic in the first quarter of next year. CBX-11 has the potential to enable effective treatment of tumors that are not homologous recombination deficient in combination with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents."
Ranjit Bindra, Cybrexa scientific co-founder and collaborator on the proposal, added, “It’s quite exciting to see that our technology has been favorably peer-reviewed from a scientific standpoint, gaining traction with acceptances for presentation at medical meetings, and is now being supported by a highly competitive grant award program such as the SBIR. This SBIR grant represents an important external validation of the core technology that Cybrexa is developing.”
About National Institute of Health (NIH) and Small Business Innovation Research
NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States and enables small businesses to engage in federal research and development of innovative biomedical technologies with a strong potential for commercialization. In FY2018, NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs will invest over 1 billion dollars into health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives.
About Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in Combination with Chemotherapy
Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have demonstrated clear efficacy as monotherapies in the clinic against metastatic solid tumors in cancers with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). PARP inhibitors have showed only limited activity against non-HRD cancers. Combination therapy with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents has the potential to greatly enhance anti-tumor activity in non-HRD cancers, but combining PARP inhibitors with chemotherapy in clinical studies has been challenging largely due to the accompanying toxicity.
About alphalexTM Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
