Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Announces Publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Highlighting the Discovery of its WEE1 Inhibitor Candidate ZN-c3
September 01 2021 - 7:00AM
Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL), a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing
small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological
pathways of cancers, today announced the publication of the
discovery of ZN-c3, the Company’s highly potent and selective WEE1
inhibitor candidate, in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
The inhibition of WEE1, a key regulator of the cell cycle, is a
clinically validated approach for cancer treatment. The paper
reviews Zentalis’ objectives in designing ZN-c3 as a potentially
safer and more selective WEE1 inhibitor, overcoming limitations
seen with other WEE1 inhibitors. ZN-c3 is currently being evaluated
in numerous trials as both a monotherapy and in combination, and
the Company recently announced positive clinical results in June.
In addition, Zentalis has identified potential accelerated approval
paths for ZN-c3 in both uterine serous carcinoma and a
biomarker-driven setting.
“For the past decade, WEE1 has been a target of interest in the
oncology treatment landscape. While the WEE1 inhibitor class has
demonstrated promising clinical benefits, poor kinase selectivity
and tolerability issues have potentially limited the existing
candidates’ effectiveness in patients,” commented Dr. Anthony Sun,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zentalis. “The Zentalis
team recognized the promise of inhibiting this DNA damage response
protein and set out to create a differentiated candidate with a
clean selectivity profile, improving tolerability and enabling a
continuous dosing regimen for better efficacy. We believe our
pioneering research and clinical results reported to date provide
strong evidence that ZN-c3’s profile is best-in-class, and we look
forward to exploring this candidate’s therapeutic potential across
a broad range of solid tumors in ongoing and planned trials.”
To view the publication, please visit the “Supporting
Publications” page on Zentalis’ website at www.zentalis.com.
About ZN-c3
ZN-c3 is a potentially first-in-class and best-in-class oral
inhibitor of WEE1 in development for the treatment of advanced
solid tumors. The inhibition of WEE1, a DNA damage response
protein, aims to generate sufficient DNA damage in cancer cells,
causing cell death, thereby preventing tumor growth and potentially
causing tumor regression. ZN-c3 has broad potential as a
monotherapy and in combination and we are currently evaluating this
candidate in several ongoing and planned studies, including two
potentially registrational monotherapy trials in USC and a
biomarker-driven setting, as well as combination studies such as
with chemotherapy in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. We also
recently received orphan drug and rare pediatric disease
designations by the FDA for pediatric osteosarcoma and expect to
initiate a Phase 1/2 trial in combination with chemotherapy in 3Q
2021.
For more information regarding the ongoing trials, please visit
www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About Zentalis Pharmaceuticals
Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing
small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological
pathways of cancers. The Company is developing a broad pipeline of
potentially best-in-class oncology candidates, all internally
discovered, which include ZN-c3, a WEE1 inhibitor for advanced
solid tumors, ZN-c5, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader
(SERD) for ER+/HER2- breast cancer, ZN-d5, a BCL-2 inhibitor for
hematologic malignancies, and ZN-e4, an EGFR inhibitor for
non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Zentalis has licensed ZN-c3,
ZN-c5 and ZN-d5 to its majority-owned joint venture, Zentera
Therapeutics, to develop and commercialize these candidates in
China. Zentalis has operations in both New York and San Diego.
For more information, please visit www.zentalis.com. Follow
Zentalis on Twitter at @ZentalisP and on LinkedIn
at www.linkedin.com/company/zentalis-pharmaceuticals.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not
relate to matters of historical fact should be considered
forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements
regarding our expectations surrounding the development, potential,
safety, efficacy, and regulatory and clinical progress of our
product candidates in the Unites States and globally, including
without limitation ZN-c3, and plans and timing for the initiation
of and the release of data from our clinical trials and our ability
to meet other key milestones. These statements are neither promises
nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other important factors that may cause our actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to the
important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2021
filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and
our other filings with the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements
represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press
release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking
statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation
to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to
change.Investor Contact:Gitanjali Jain
OgawaSolebury Troutgogawa@soleburytrout.com
Media Contact:Julia DeutschSolebury
Troutjdeutsch@soleburytrout.com
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