Nexus BioPharma signs deal with TransChem for kinase inhibition technology

Nexus BioPharma has signed an agreement to license TransChem’s transition state chemistry technology for kinase inhibition.

Kinases are enzymes that regulate essential cellular processes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s milestone approval in 2001 of the first kinase inhibitor, imatinib, was followed by a steady approval of kinase inhibitors over the next 10 years. To date, The FDA has approved 28 small-molecule kinase inhibitors, half of which were approved in the last 3 years.

Nexus BioPharma president and CEO Warren Lau said: “We are pleased to acquire this groundbreaking technology that will not only enable us to develop our second generation weight loss preparation but will make Nexus a major player in the development of safer and more effective kinase inhibitors for a wide variety of conditions in this rapidly growing sector of the pharmaceutical market.”

The overall kinase inhibitor market is estimated by BCC Research to reach $40.2 billion in 2016.

About Transition State Chemistry

The transition state is the moment at which the chemical bond decides if it will break or reform. It is the exceedingly short time during which there is an equal probability of nudging atoms to form new products or returning them to their original configuration.

By replicating a shape that exists for the femtosecond lifetime of the transition state, and creating a chemical copy of that shape, it becomes possible to completely halt the action of the enzyme and freeze an enzymatic reaction. These synthetic mimics are called “transition-state analogs” and are as powerful as any enzyme inhibitors ever created. Because they are specific and required in extremely small doses, transition-state analogs provide an approach that could revolutionize how drugs are developed.