PRECLINICAL PHASE
Advancing a novel agent through the product pipeline for eventual patient use starts with the preclinical phase of drug development.
This phase:
- Identifies the target disease/subpopulation of patients
- Defines the agent's biological mechanism
- Demonstrates drug efficacy as well as safety in animal studies
The preclinical phase determines whether the experimental agent will undergo subsequent steps of drug development based on the results observed in experimental models of the target disease.
We have four drugs in preclinical development including antibodies to tumor endothelial marker 8, caveolin-1 tumor paracrine hormone, immunotoxin substance-P saporin to chronic pain neruorns expressing neuronkinin-1 receptor, and enzymes degrading arginine and methionine for amino acid auxotropic tumors.