On September 8, 2020 Zion Pharma Limited, an emerging Chinese biotechnology company focused on the development of brain-penetrable compounds, reported the initiation of its Phase 1 study, in the United States, for its lead program ZN-A-1041. ZN-A-1041, is a best-in-class, small molecule tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor targeting HER2 (Press release, Zion Pharma, SEP 8, 2020, View Source [SID1234564778]). ZN-A-1041 is being developed to address the unmet medical need associated with brain metastases accompanying HER2+ advanced breast cancer. The U.S. trial is being conducted at several sites including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Duke Cancer Institute.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
"We are excited to have initiated our Phase 1 trial for ZN-A-1041," stated Zack Cheng, Ph.D., Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder at Zion Pharma Limited. "With dosing of the first patient in our Phase 1 study, Zion becomes a clinical stage company. A feat we are particularly proud of as we achieved this within 30 months of forming the company." Dr. Cheng continued, "We recently completed a $20 million Series A follow-on that will provide us sufficient funding for the next two years. This is an extremely exciting time for our team, and we look forward to advancing highly effective therapies to those patients in need."
Dr. Ding Zhou, Ph.D., CSO and Co-Founder, at Zion Pharma Limited added, "With our recent financing, we expect to complete the ZN-A-1041 Phase 1 study in the U.S. and China and advance several of our other programs into IND-enabling studies."
In addition, the company announced that Wendy Li, M.D. has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Li brings to Zion Pharma 10 years of clinical practice and over 20 years of hands-on experience in providing medical and scientific leadership in clinical research multiple therapeutic areas, with previous experience in oncology clinical development at Genentech, Sanofi, and Pfizer. Previously, Dr. Li has been VP/CMO with Sihuan Pharma/Xuanzhu Shandong and CMO at Exuma Biotech. Dr. Li received her M.D. from the Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Studies in China.