Ambit Biosciences Expands Kinase Profiling Panel to 234 Kinases, Plans 14X Increase in Profiling Capacity for 2006
SAN DIEGO - (BUSINESS WIRE)--February 14, 2006 - Ambit Biosciences today announced that it has expanded the panel of kinases available through its KinomeScan kinase profiling technology to 234 kinases, including many clinically-relevant kinases and several drug-resistant or disease-causing mutant kinases. Additionally, the company announced that it generated approximately 300,000 data points, defined as one small molecule screened against one kinase, during the past year by screening both its own and its partners' libraries of compounds against the robust KinomeScan panel.
"During 2005, Ambit nearly doubled the number of kinases available in our high throughput screening panel, a feat that is particularly impressive considering our team has been simultaneously focused on advancing our pipeline of internally-generated kinase inhibitors towards the clinic," said Scott Salka, Chief Executive Officer of Ambit. "While Ambit's primary focus for 2006 is driving our first kinase inhibitor into clinical trials, we still expect to expand the KinomeScan panel to well over 300 kinases and to deliver a 14X increase in our kinase profiling capacity. These twin goals will support our commitment to generate more than 4 million data points in 2006 to drive our internal drug discovery and development efforts as well as those of our partners."
"KinomeScan significantly accelerates drug discovery and development, from early discovery screening through lead optimization and into the preclinical and clinical stages," said Shripad Bhagwat, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at Ambit. "KinomeScan slashes traditional SAR cycle times, ensures that lead optimization programs stay on track, and helps identify opportunities that are completely missed by conventional approaches."
The KinomeScan screening platform has been featured in papers published in Nature Biotechnology and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and forms the basis of Ambit's partnerships with Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Daiichi-Sankyo, Celera and others.
About Kinases in Drug Development
Kinases play key roles in cancer, inflammation, diabetes and other diseases. With more than 30 kinase inhibitors in clinical trials or approved for human use including Gleevec(R), IRESSA(R) and TARCEVA™, this important class of proteins is a rich area for drug development. However, kinases share similarities that make them difficult to target specifically, and off-target inhibition can result in side effects or toxicity.
About KinomeScan
KinomeScan is a platform that employs an ATP-site dependent competition binding assay using Ambit's proprietary amplifiable fusion protein (AFP™) system. Through AFP™, kinases of interest are fused to an Ambit-proprietary bacteriophage, which facilitates enzyme production, isolation and quantitation. Client libraries remain confidential and chemical structures are not required to utilize KinomeScan. This simple, highly efficient approach ensures discovery programs stay on an optimal development course, provides unprecedented insight into how molecules or entire libraries bind to both intended and unintended kinases, and opportunistically identifies unanticipated interactions that can expand the therapeutic utility of compounds or serve as advanced starting points for new programs.
About Ambit Biosciences
Ambit Biosciences is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. Ambit plans to initiate clinical trials with its kinase inhibitor for the treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2006. Ambit's proprietary kinase profiling technology, KinomeScan, is designed to be integrated across all stages of the drug discovery and development process and has been validated through collaborations with Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and others. Ambit has raised a total of more than $56 million from investors including Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Roche Venture Fund, Avalon Ventures, GIMV NV, MDS Capital, Genechem and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.