Karyopharm finds clinical partner, possible new uses for cancer drug
Karyopharm Therapeutics of Natick has produced promising results as it develops its cancer drug, KPT-330. Now, the startup is exploring other potential applications for its technology.
Karyopharm CEO Dr. Michael Kauffman said the startup has tested KPT-330 in a topical gel on animal subjects and gotten positive results in treating wounds that are difficult to heal. The startup is also studying other applications for autoimmune diseases, but Kauffman said it was too early to discuss those in detail.
Treatment could serve 'unmet need'
The hope is that Karyopharm will be able to create viable treatments for difficult-to-treat wounds, which affect a growing contingent of the aging population, Kauffman said. He said there’s a “big, unmet need” for such treatment, because people are living longer. With age comes the risk for wounds. For example, a person confined to a bed may develop ulcers that are slow to heal. And diabetics, another growing population, are particularly prone to slow-healing wounds due to arterial diseases and neuropathy.
“We’re hoping we can make a dent in that,” Kauffman said.
Karyopharm launched in 2009 under the vision of Sharon Shacham, Kauffman’s co-founder and Karyopharm’s president and chief scientific officer. Shacham studied a pathway to cancer treatment that had not been explored by any other company and designed a compound that targets only one type of protein that’s crucial to guarding against cancer.
It’s clear that Karyopharm executives are keen on expanding, even though the company is still conducting its only two formal clinical trials for the treatment of an acute form of leukemia and a hard-to-treat form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
In addition to those, Kauffman said the company is planning studies for the treatment of certain gynecological cancers, as well as cancers of the head and neck, among others.
Partnership will help Karyopharm ramp up studies
To help the 40-employee biotech startup scale its clinical activities, Karyopharm announced last week that it will partner with Clinipace Worldwide, a North Carolina-based clinical research organization, to help manage a number of its clinical programs.
Until now, Karyopharm conducted those programs in house, as well as with help from a few outside contractors. But they weren’t large enough to handle all that Karyopharm has planned now. According to a press release, Clinispace will oversee the launches of “numerous” studies in 2014. This will expedite the process of bringing Karyopharm’s drugs to market, according to Shacham.
“By partnering with a like-minded, technology-driven company like Clinipace, we believe we can help accelerate our first-in-class (technology) into effective, targeted therapeutics for life-threatening conditions,” Shacham said.
Image source: Freedigitalphotos.net
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