On December 19, 2018 Spirita Oncology, LLC, reported that it has entered into a sublicense agreement with JS Innopharm (Shanghai) Ltd. to initiate global clinical development of E6201, a potent MEK1 inhibitor with excellent brain penetration (Press release, Spirita Oncology, DEC 19, 2018, View Source [SID1234532159]).
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In August 2018, Strategia Holdings, LLC, a parent company of Spirita Oncology, LLC, and JS Innopharm initiated a Strategic Partnership Alliance to facilitate global drug development. This China sublicense of E6201 is conducted as part of these activities.
In November 2018, Spirita Oncology and The University of Arizona Cancer Center announced the Initiation of a Phase 1 clinical trial of the E6201 in patients with central nervous system metastases from BRAF+ or MEK-mutated metastatic melanoma. In a previous study (NCT00794781), E6201 demonstrated activity in metastatic melanoma, including a patient who maintains an exceptional ongoing durable response lasting for almost 9 years ("E6201, an intravenous MEK1 inhibitor, achieves an exceptional response in BRAF V600E-mutated metastatic malignant melanoma with brain metastases" Babiker, H.M., Byron, S.A., Hendricks, W.P.D. et al. Invest New Drugs (2018). View Source).
"This partnership is to effectively deliver new therapeutic approaches to patients worldwide. Spirita is expanding the E6201 global development to provide a more effective therapeutic by collaborating with JS Innopharm," said Keizo Koya, Ph.D., President & CEO of Spirita Oncology. "We are also planning to in-license promising oncology candidates to expand our global development with the power of the US and China coming together."
"We are very pleased to partner with Spirita Oncology to advance the global development of E6201, which allow us to bring this product candidate quickly to the Chinese patients," said Dr. Jintao Zhang, CEO of JS InnoPharm. "We look forward to working with Spirita Oncology on E6201 program, and will continue to work together to in-license and develop promising oncology candidates that have synergies with our in-house pipeline."