ARIAD’s second oncology product candidate, AP24534, is an internally discovered oral multi-targeted kinase inhibitor that we believe has broad potential applications in cancer. AP24534 is currently being evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1 clinical study in patients with hematological (blood-based) cancers, primarily chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). ARIAD expects to begin a pivotal trial of AP24534 in the second half of 2010. Read Recent Press Release on AP24534.
The primary target for AP24534 is BCR-ABL, an abnormal tyrosine kinase that is the hallmark of CML and Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). AP24534 was designed using ARIAD’s computational and structure-based drug design platform to inhibit the enzymatic activity of BCR-ABL with very high potency and broad specificity. AP24534 was intended to target not only native BCR-ABL, but also its isoforms that carry mutations that confer resistance to treatment with existing tyrosine kinase inhibitors, including especially the T315I mutation for which no effective therapy exists.