Oncalis AG

Oncalis AG is a drug development company based in Schlieren near Zurich, Switzerland, focused on the development of orally available kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer.

Kinase inhibitors therapies are at the cutting edge of oncology drugs following the Gleevec lead (sales of 2.9 billion US$ in 2007). The recent successes of Nexavar (Astra Zeneca), Sprycel (BMS), Sutent (Pfizer) and Tykerb (GSK) pave the way to the success of kinase inhibitors. Within the first few years of commercialization, Nexavar, Sutent and Sprycel achieved sales of 150 mio US$ to 581 mio US$ in 2007. These drugs are projected to reach peak sales between 600 mio US$ and 2 bio US$ by 2010, thus validating Oncalis approach.

Oncalis business model is to fill the gap between the lead/development candidate stage and the early clinical stage. This gap is currently under-exploited as the lead/development candidate stage is considered as too early by a majority of pharmaceutical companies and investors. Hence, Oncalis has been and is in a good position to increase its portfolio by in-licensing at favorable conditions.