In April 2012, Allos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ALTH) was acquired by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, itself also an SBIR awardee working on therapies for solid tumors and blood cancers. Allos Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. EFAPROXYN⢠(efaproxiral) is the first synthetic small molecule designed to sensitize hypoxic, or oxygen-deprived, areas of tumors during radiation therapy by facilitating the release of oxygen from hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein contained within red blood cells, and increasing the level of oxygen in tumors. The presence of oxygen in tumors is an essential element for the effectiveness of radiation therapy. By increasing tumor oxygenation, we believe EFAPROXYN has the potential to enhance the efficacy of standard radiation therapy. PDX (pralatrexate) is a small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that inhibits dihdrofolate reductase, or DHFR, a folic acid (folate) dependent enzyme involved in the building of DNA and other processes. PDX was rationally designed for improved transport into tumor cells via the reduced folate carrier (RFC-1), and greater intracellular drug retention. These biochemical features, together with preclinical data in a variety of tumors, suggest that PDX has an enhanced potency and toxicity profile relative to methotrexate and other related DHFR inhibitors. RH1 is a small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that is bioactivated by the enzyme DT-diaphorase, or DTD, which is over-expressed in many tumors relative to normal tissue, including lung, colon, breast and liver tumors. Because RH1 is bioactivated in the presence of DTD, it has the potential to provide targeted drug delivery to these tumor types while limiting the toxicity to normal tissue. RH1 has undergone in vivo efficacy testing by the Developmental Therapeutics Program of the National Cancer Institute and has demonstrated significant activity in both NSCLC and ovarian xenograft models. In January 2003, Allos licensed PDX from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Southern Research Institute and SRI International. PDX is an injectable small molecule cytotoxic agent that has a superior potency and toxicity profile relative to methotrexate and other related DHFR inhibitors and has shown significant single-agent activity in a 39-patient Phase 2 trial in previously treated patients with non-small cell lung cancer. / biosigner
