Astex Announces Commencement of Phase I Study for AZD5363 in Anti-Cancer Collaboration with AstraZeneca

14-Apr-2011 - United Kingdom

Astex Therapeutics confirmed the commencement of a Phase I study for AZD5363, a Protein Kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt) inhibitor. AZD5363 is a clinical candidate selected in January 2010 by AstraZeneca subsequent to its collaborative programme with Astex.  The collaborative programme originated from an earlier Astex collaboration with The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) which began in 2003.

AZD5363 is an orally active selective inhibitor of PKB/Akt, a key enzyme in the PI3K/PKB/mTOR tumour cell survival pathway, and dysregulation of this pathway leads to tumour resistance to a number of important anti-cancer drugs.  Inhibition of PKB/Akt has potential in the treatment of a broad range of cancer types.

The Phase I study, being conducted at multiple centres in Europe, is designed to investigate the safety, tolerability and preliminary anti-cancer activity of AZD5363 in patients with advanced solid tumours, and to identify a dose and schedule that can be used in Phase II trials.

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