Snowdon

Therapeutic Area: Cancer

Cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of death, surpassing heart disease by the end of this decade. Despite significant progress in our understanding of the molecular defects that contribute to the development of cancer, progress in the development of novel anti-cancer drugs has remained relatively slow. Clearly there exists an urgent need to develop novel anticancer therapies that are safe and effective.

Antimitotic agents that interfere with the dynamic stability of microtubules are widely considered one of the most desirable classes of anti-cancer agents. The clinical effectiveness the vinca alkaloids (vincristine, vinblastine, vinorelbine) and taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel) as antimitotic agents for human cancer therapy is well established. Despite their broad utility, these anti-mitotic drugs possess numerous liabilities including neural and systemic toxicity, limited solubility, marginal bioavailability, complex synthetic pathways, and tedious extraction procedures. Development of drug resistance to these agents in patients further limits their clinical utility. The typical mode of administration of these compounds is intravenous, thereby adding discomfort and inconvenience for the patient and caregiver. At Snowdon, we are developing a new generation of safe and effective anti-mitotic agents as anticancer drugs. Our compounds are easy to make, water soluble, and amenable to oral administration. Our lead compound SW30 has shown impressive results shrinking tumors with negligible side effects in mice.

Therapeutic Areas: Cancer | Acute and Chronic Pain | Infectious Diseases | Neurological Diseases