AstraZeneca pays $1m milestone

AstraZeneca has selected a clinical candidate for development from the US firm Array BioPharma leading to $1 million milestone payout.

It is the second candidate to be taken by AstraZeneca to be included in its small molecule anti-cancer programme after ARRY-142886 (AZD6244) was selected for co-development in December 2003.

Array president and chief scientific officer Kevin Koch said: “We are pleased that our collaboration with AstraZeneca has yielded an additional high quality development candidate.

“Our first proprietary compound, ARRY-142886, continues to make good progress in Phase Ib. We believe the data generated in this study will support more advanced clinical testing of this promising compound.”

It is hoped the enzyme will be used to tackle a range of cancers, such as lung, pancreatic, and colon cancers, by blocking the molecules that lead to their development.

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