Astellas Advances Drugs For Prostate Cancer, Organ Transplants

Astellas Advances Drugs For Prostate Cancer, Organ Transplants

Nikkei English News - Nov. 08, 2007

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Astellas Pharma Inc. (4503) has moved into phase II clinical trials on two candidate drugs, a treatment for prostate cancer and a compliment to its immunosuppressant drug Prograf.

Phase II trials test the efficacy of candidate drug compounds. Astellas hopes to release the two drugs at an early date to further bolster sales in its main fields of urology and organ transplant.

The prostate cancer drug, known by its development number ASP3550, is an injection preparation that inhibits cancer cell proliferation by binding to GnRH receptors in the brain to reduce the secretion of male hormone. Developed by the Swiss company Ferring Pharmaceuticals, the drug does not cause a temporary spike in male hormone and a single injection lasts for a month.

The transplant drug can help dampen the immune response to prevent organ rejection. The compound works differently from its blockbuster immunosuppressant drug Prograf, so Astellas is developing it as a drug to be administered together with Prograf.

Known by the development number ASP0485, this drug is a chimeric protein developed using genetic engineering by U.S. company Biogen Idec. One end of the compound binds to T cells and the other end binds to NK cells. By bringing the NK cell near the T cell, the T cell cannot exchange information with other cells to trigger inflammation.

Tests this year will begin in North America and Europe on patients receiving kidney transplants.