San Diego, USA and Shenzhenm China – May 24, 2007 — HUYA Bioscience International, LLC and Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd. announced today that a Phase I clinical trial has been initiated in China with the compound Chidamide (CS055) /HBI- 8000, an investigational cancer compound. HUYA holds exclusive rights to the compound (HBI-8000) worldwide outside of China, while Chipscreen maintains rights in China. The Phase I clinical trial is designed to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of the compound.
HUYA will assist Chipscreen with development of Chidamide in China. HUYA also plans to file an Investigational New Drug application and commence clinical trials with HBI-8000 in the United States and Europe.
Mireille Gingras Ph.D., HUYA’s President and Chief Executive Officer stated, “The initiation of Phase I trials is a significant achievement for us. It represents both an important development milestone for this promising cancer compound and illustrates the benefits of Chinese and American Biotech companies working together to efficiently carry out drug development. This important step will expedite the clinical development process of HBI-8000 in the U.S. and Europe.”
Chidamide/HBI-8000 is an orally bioavailable histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor derived from the benzamide class. Histone deacetylase inhibitors are a new class of cancer drugs that induce selective regulation of gene expression in cancer cells. Chidamide/HBI-8000 has exhibited preclinical efficacy and pharmacokinetic properties that may translate into a superior clinical profile over other HDAC inhibitors currently in development or being marketed.
About HUYA Bioscience International
HUYA Bioscience International, LLC, with offices in San Diego and Shanghai, capitalizes on the explosive growth of the biotechnology industry in China. HUYA identifies and licenses promising Chinese pharmaceuticals for development and commercialization in Western markets. Using its management team and advisors, HUYA lowers the product development risk by accessing an extremely broad range of product opportunities and assisting with the generation of early clinical data in China. This information is highly valuable for the efficient initiation of clinical development in the United States and Europe. Further information about the company is available at www.huyabio.com.
About Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd.
Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd. is a leading China-based life sciences company that specializes in discovering and developing proprietary small molecule therapeutics. The company also provides a full suite of service solutions for collaborative research to the life sciences industry worldwide. Central to Chipscreen’s drug discovery platform are the company’s core capabilities including integration of in silico design, high content screening, pathway expression profiling, PK/PD screening, and informatics in the early stages of the discovery process. Chipscreen has increased the efficiency and accelerated the discovery of new medicines through its proprietary chemical genomics-based approach. Chipscreen operates from a state-of-the-art facility in Shenzhen, China, which is equipped with the latest computational & medicinal chemistry, scale-up synthesis, natural product chemistry, formulation, analytic method development, biology, high throughput screening, microarray, and informatics resources. Further information about the company is available at http://www.chipscreen.com.
Contact
USA:
Mireille Gingras, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
HUYA Bioscience International
(858) 798-8800
mgingras@huyabio.com
www.huyabio.com
China:
Shenzhen Chipscreen Bioscience Ltd
Xian-Ping Lu, PhD
President and Chief Scientific Officer
Shenzhen Chipscreen Bioscience Ltd.
86-(755)26711889
xplu@chipscreen.com
http://www.chipscreen.com