Xconomy: Cerulean Pharma Makes Progress in Attacking the Big C with Tiny Drugs
Summary
Abraxis BioScience, which Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) agreed to buy for $2.9 billion in June, has gained FDA approval for an earlier nanoparticle drug that delivers a chemotherapy agent for treating lung and breast cancers.Such control could also make Cerulean’s nanoparticles useful in overcoming challenges in delivering other types of drugs, including the gene-silencing treatments called short interfering RNAs, Fetzer said.These molecules, under development at firms such as Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNY), are made of nucleic acid chains, which can easily be degraded by enzymes in the body before they can reach diseased cells, and Cerulean’s nanoparticles might be able to help shield them on that journey.Last year, the company also licensed technology from the lab of renowned Caltech chemical engineer Mark Davis that is related to Cerulean’s lead drug.For non-small cell lung cancer, to name one tumor type of interest in the Phase IIa, the median survival of patients who have failed to respond to existing drugs is about seven months, Fetzer said.