Latest Plexxikon Stories

SAN DIEGO and JERUSALEM, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambit Biosciences and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) ("Teva") today announced the clearance of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for CEP-32496, a novel BRAF (V600E) kinase inhibitor. The IND filing was based upon promising therapeutic potential for this agent, as evidenced by data revealed in recent publications in the Journal of Medicinal...

Drug used to treat melanoma with 1 mutation sets off a cascade that results in a different type of skin cancer in cells with another mutation Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf®) responded well to the twice daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer. Now, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, working with investigators from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Roche and...

Findings from preclinical studies in a skin cancer model showed that next-generation BRAF inhibitors used alone, or first-generation BRAF inhibitors used in combination with an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor, may have the potential to prevent drug-induced skin lesions in BRAF mutation-positive patients treated for melanoma. The studies, presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held Nov. 12-16, 2011, further elucidated...

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Aug. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval today of Zelboraf(TM) (vemurafenib), a first-in-class personalized treatment for patients with unresectable (inoperable) or metastatic melanoma with a BRAF V600E mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test, Daiichi Sankyo prepares to enter the US cancer market with its first oral, targeted anti-cancer therapy. "The Zelboraf approval is not only a significant milestone for these...

PARSIPPANY, N.J. and TOKYO, May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiichi Sankyo announced that applications have been submitted for market approval for vemurafenib (PLX4032/RG7204) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Additionally, a pre-marketing application for approval for a companion diagnostic test has been submitted in the U.S.; the test also will be registered in Europe. Vemurafenib is an oral,...

A breakthrough discovery may offer an effective new treatment for melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer, scientists said on Wednesday.The researchers found that leflunomide - a drug commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis "“ also inhibits the growth of malignant melanoma.  Furthermore, when leflunomide was used in combination with PLX4720, a promising new melanoma therapy currently undergoing clinical trials, the effect was even more powerful "“ leading to a nearly...

PARSIPPANY, N.J. and TOKYO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereinafter Daiichi Sankyo; headquartered in Chuo Ward, Tokyo), today announced that it has concluded an agreement to acquire Plexxikon Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company based in Berkeley, California with a late-stage oncology product, PLX4032, as well as a promising pipeline and technology platform. "The acquisition of Plexxikon not only accelerates our entry into the oncology market but...

Use of an experimental targeted drug to treat metastatic melanoma tumors with a specific genetic signature was successful in more than 80 percent of patients in a phase 1 clinical trial. Results of the trial of PLX4032, an inhibitor of a protein called BRAF that is overactive in more than half of all melanomas, appear in the August 26 New England Journal of Medicine."Metastatic melanoma has a devastating prognosis and is one of the top causes of cancer death in young patients," says...

Preclinical findings recently published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, showed RG7204 (PLX4032) inhibited proliferation of tumor cell lines that expressed V600E-BRAF, a mutation found in several human cancers, including melanoma.The compound also showed partial or complete tumor regression and improved survival in a dose-dependent manner in preclinical efficacy models in rodents, without associated toxicity.BRAF mutations are found in about 8...

CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoGenomics, a leader in providing automated, molecular testing solutions announced today that it has launched an expanded test panel to detect 17 B-RAF mutations for research use to enhance the understanding of B-RAF mutations. The featured four-part series in The New York Times, this week focuses on the importance of B-RAF mutations and the next generation of cancer therapies. "We congratulate Plexxikon and Roche on the dramatic success of their...