About

Since the discovery of “Id” genes more than 20 years ago, Dr. Robert Benezra, the Company’s Chief Scientific and Executive Officer (“CEO” and “CSO”) and a Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (“MSKCC”), has been pursuing the role of Id genes, and the proteins they express, in stimulating intrinsic tumor cell growth and blood vessel development to support such growth that occurs both in early fetal development and in the pathology of numerous important diseases. Subsequent experiments by Dr. Benezra with an “Id knock-out” mouse suggested that interfering with Id protein activity might prevent the establishment and spread of tumors that normally “dupe” the body into activating the Id mechanism for cancer cell proliferation and creating the new blood vessels cancer cells need to grow and spread. The role of the Id proteins as targets for neovessels and tumor cell proliferation, as well as metastasis, was further discussed in numerous scientific articles. The articles also discuss the Id mechanism and potential for disease prevention.

The Company’s bio-pharmaceutical technology and its development plans are based on the hypothesis that Id protein-supported cell proliferation and neo-vascularization is central to the pathology of many forms of cancer and macular degeneration (a disease characterized by unregulated blood vessel growth in the eye), and that the inhibition of Id has a powerful positive effect on preventing the progression of many forms of cancer and macular degeneration.

The Company’s drugs (including our two lead drug candidates AGX51 and its derivative AGXA) are at the pre-clinical stage of development. Our Company would like to ultimately develop different Id-inhibitor drugs to treat cancer and macular degeneration.

Our two lead drug candidates are AGX51 and its derivative AGXA, with AGXA being the first drug candidate we are testing towards an Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”). The Company also has a number of other proprietary small molecules. Focusing on the exact three-dimensional atomic structure of the Id protein, our chemists designed drugs that we believe bind to the Id proteins and inhibit their activity, based on unpublished experimental data regarding the drugs’ activity in in vitro tests, and from cell line and animal models of breast and other cancers and macular degeneration. The goal of these experiments was to see if, in pre-clinical models, AGXA and AGX51’s other derivatives can reproduce the impact of Id gene deletion in preventing the Id proteins from performing their role in support of the establishment and spread of cancer. The Company’s working hypothesis is that the Company’s drugs interfere with Id activity both in the tumor cells themselves and the vessels that support their growth, and that this dual activity might support the Company’s attempts to establish the superior performance of AGXA over other drugs which only inhibit blood vessel growth.