Aileron Therapeutics And Advancium Health Network Announced An Exclusive Option Agreement For The Acquisition Of ALRN-6924, Developed By Aileron Prior To Its 2023 Merger With Lung Therapeutics

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | October 31, 2024 07:38am

Under the terms of the option agreement, Advancium paid Aileron a non-refundable fee for the exclusive option to acquire ALRN-6924 and related assets. If Advancium exercises its option, Aileron will receive an exercise payment with potential for additional development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and sales royalties.

 

During the option period, Advancium intends to evaluate ALRN-6924 as a potential therapy for retinoblastoma (RB), a rare but devastating cancer of the eye, with around 300 cases diagnosed in the United States and 9,000 cases worldwide each year, nearly all in children [1]. With early intervention the disease is rarely fatal; however, non-selective chemotherapy with its attendant side effects remains the usual treatment strategy, and removal of the affected eye(s) is a frequent outcome. In contrast to chemotherapy, ALRN-6924 selectively targets MDM2 and MDMX, the endogenous inhibitors of the regulatory protein p53, to activate p53-mediated tumor suppression in cancer cells [2]. Previous studies have implicated the MDMX protein as a key driver of RB tumorigenesis [3], and ALRN-6924 is the first and only clinical-stage drug that acts on MDMX. ALRN-6924 has previously been studied in preclinical models of RB, where it showed potent, on-mechanism anti-proliferative activity in RB cell lines and was found to be highly soluble and compatible with intraocular injection [4].

Posted In: ALRN