Previously known as Terrapin Diagnostics, then Terrapin Technologies Inc and most recently (until mid-2014) as Telik Inc. (NASDAQ:TELK). the original star-up had been a biopharmaceutical company organized around develpment of novel small molecule drugs to treat cancer and other serious diseases. The major drug of the company was TELINTRA, an investigational agent that was in development for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and idiopathic chronic neutropenia. Telik never really recovered from what was judged a mishandling data related to the premature deaths of ovarian cancer patients treated with its experimental drug Telcyta and the highly questionable behavior of management that followed, In the Summer 2014, the firm was the subject of a reverse merger with privately held Mabvax Therapeutics - also an active SBIR player. With MabVax stockholders owning the major percentage of 85% of the combined companies, the now operational created entity. is managed by MabVax management developing cancer vaccines, with two products targeting sarcoma and ovarian cancer enrolling patients in proof-of-concept phase II studies.
