Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc., a New York-based biopharmaceutical company, have formed a license agreement in which Checkpoint will obtain the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize CEP-8983 and its small-molecule prodrug, CEP-9722, an oral poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor in early clinical development for solid tumors. CEP-9722 is an orally active, small-molecule selective inhibitor of PARP-1 and PARP-2 enzymes that will be developed by Checkpoint as both a monotherapy and in combination with other anti-cancer agents, including Checkpoint's immuno-oncology and checkpoint inhibitor antibodies currently in development.

Checkpoint is developing a portfolio of fully human immuno-oncology targeted antibodies generated in the laboratory of Dr. Wayne Marasco, MD, PhD, a professor in the Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The portfolio of antibodies Checkpoint licensed from Dana-Farber includes antibodies targeting programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), glucocorticoid-induced TNFR related protein (GITR), and carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX). Checkpoint plans to develop these immune-oncology and checkpoint inhibitor antibodies on their own and in combination with each other, as data suggests that combinations of these targets may work synergistically together. Checkpoint has also licensed a small-molecule inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor mutations from NeuPharma, Inc. Clinical trials are expected to start in the first half of 2016 for the EGFR inhibitor and the second half of 2016 for one or more of the Dana-Farber antibodies.

Source: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries