Moleculin Announces Breakthrough Discovery for its WP1066
December 04 2018 - 7:30AM
WP1066 shown to counteract resistance to checkpoint
blockades
Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (Nasdaq: MBRX) ("Moleculin" or the
"Company"), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on the
development of oncology drug candidates, all of which are based on
license agreements with The University of Texas System on behalf of
the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, today announced that its own
sponsored research has now confirmed a recent published study
demonstrating the ability of its clinical-stage immuno-stimulating
STAT3 inhibitor, WP1066, to inhibit a key immune checkpoint target
known as PD-L1.
“We have known for some time that WP1066 had the potential to
stimulate a natural immune response,” commented Dr. Donald Picker,
Moleculin’s Chief Science Officer. “But, this data suggests
that our drug may be capable of having a major impact on the field
of checkpoint blockades. With this information combined with
findings from other recently published studies demonstrating the
impotant role of STAT3 in cancer immunology, we plan to run
additional in vitro and in vivo studies, some of which are already
underway, with WP1066 in combination with well-known checkpoint
inhibitors to gather more data on this response.”
Walter Klemp, Moleculin’s Chairman and CEO added, “This
potential was initially reported in a 2017 Japanese study (Journal
of clinical and experimental hematopathology, Vol. 57 No.1, 21-25,
2017), but we have now been able to confirm this activity with our
own sponsored research at MD Anderson. Also, very recent
independent research (Front Pharmacol. 2018 May 22;9:536. doi:
10.3389/fphar.2018.00536. eCollection 2018.) has linked STAT3,
HIF1-a and c-Myc (all targets of WP1066) to the mechanism (a ligand
known as PD-L1) believed to be largely responsible for resistance
to current checkpoint blockade therapies. We believe this
could put WP1066 center-stage in the field of immunotherapy.
It’s potentially a tremendous breakthrough for our
company.”
About Moleculin Biotech, Inc.
Moleculin Biotech, Inc. is a clinical stage pharmaceutical
company focused on the development of oncology drug candidates, all
of which are based on discoveries made at M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center. The Company’s clinical stage drugs are Annamycin, an
anthracycline designed to avoid multidrug resistance mechanisms
with little to no cardiotoxicity being studied for the treatment of
relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia, more commonly
referred to as AML, and WP1066, an immuno-stimulating STAT3
inhibitor targeting brain tumors, pancreatic cancer and AML.
Moleculin Biotech is also engaged in preclinical development of
additional drug candidates, including additional STAT3 inhibitors
and compounds targeting the metabolism of tumors.
For more information about the Company, please visit
http://www.moleculin.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve
risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this press
release include, without limitation, the ability of WP1066 to show
safety and efficacy in patients. Although Moleculin Biotech
believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may
prove to have been materially different from the results expressed
or implied by such forward-looking statements. Moleculin Biotech
has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology
including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,''
''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,''
''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,''
''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future
events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements.
These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those discussed
under Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in our most recently filed Form 10-K
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and
updated from time to time in our Form 10-Q filings and in our other
public filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements
contained in this release speak only as of its date. We undertake
no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in
this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its
date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
ContactsJoe Dorame, Robert Blum or Joe
DiazLytham Partners, LLC602-889-9700mbrx@lythampartners.com
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