Boehringer Ingelheim to collaborate with Priaxon

Boehringer Ingelheim revealed this week that it plans to collaborate with Priaxon for the development of mdm2/p53 inhibitors – which have the potential to treat various types of tumour.

Priaxon will bring its proprietary small molecule drug discovery expertise to the partnership, which is well-suited to investigate inhibition of protein-protein interactions.

Boehringer Ingelheim will lead development and commercialisation of the mdm2/p53 inhibitor products and will make upfront payments to Priaxon for research and discovery projects.

The compound constituting the main focus of the collaboration – p53 – is a human tumour suppressor protein and may hold tumour-suppressing qualities.

Dr Wolfgang Rettig, corporate senior vice-president of research at Boehringer Ingelheim, commented: “The discovery of p53 and its protein-protein interactions in a broad range of human cancers has been a milestone in cancer biology, yet finding potent inhibitors of these interactions has been challenging.”

Last month, Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it had instigated a clinical study into one of its ovarian cancer therapies – the compound BIBF 1120.