Kancera; Update regarding the ROR project

In order to reduce risk in the further development of ROR inhibiting drugs, Kancera also intends to produce a compound that works in animals/rodents to be used in efficacy and safety studies. This work has also progressed, but some steps remain before the start of efficacy and safety studies in animals, as well as delivery of a candidate drug during the fall of 2013.

After 24 hours in vitro, KAN0439365, shows a significantly higher killing effect against cancer cells from treatment-resistant patients than the new and groundbreaking drug Ibrutinib * which is soon entering the market. The studies were performed in blood samples derived from patients with an advanced stage of the cancer disease CLL at which today’s most widely used drug for this disease, Fludarabine, lacks clinical efficacy. These results indicate that Kancera´s ROR inhibitors may provide a unique treatment for a group of patients who currently are not treatable.

Kancera has also taken actions to strengthen its patent portfolio in the ROR project. In order to extend the time during which Kancera can protect new inventions related to its ROR inhibitors, the company’s first patent has been revoked and replaced by a new application EP13180941.0. with refined coverage. Furthermore, Kancera has registered national applications for human monoclonal antibodies against ROR in the U.S., Europe, India and China.

* Ibrutinib ™ is an inhibitor of the kinase enzyme BTK
** CLL is the most common chronic form of leukemia in adults, chronic lymphocytic leukemia

About the ROR project
ROR is a family of receptors, ROR 1 and ROR 2. The ROR receptors mediate signals for growth and survival. Originally ROR was linked to fetal development, but it is now known that they also contribute to cancer cell development and proliferation. Professor Håkan Mellstedt, Kancera´s co-founder and professor at the Karolinska Institute, and his colleagues have shown that Kancera´s ROR inhibitors have the ability to kill cells from tumors in pancreas, and leukemia cells. Professor Mellstedt and his colleagues as well as independent researchers have shown that ROR is also active as a target in prostate, breast, skin and lung cancer.

Because ROR primarily generates a survival and growth signal to tumor cells but is inactive in healthy cells in adults, there are good prospects that a drug directed against ROR hit the tumor much harder than the surrounding healthy cells. Kancera and Professor Mellstedt have shown that inhibition of ROR leads to that cancer cells eliminate themselves by cellular suicide. Against this background, there are reasons to anticipate that a ROR-targeted drug is both safer and more effective than several chemotherapies currently used to treat cancer.

About Kancera AB (publ)
Kancera develops the basis for new therapeutics, starting with new treatment concepts and ending with the sale of a drug candidate to international pharmaceutical companies. Kancera is currently developing drugs for the treatment of leukemia and solid tumors, based partly on blocking survival signals in the cancer cell and partly on metabolic strangulation. Kancera’s operations are based in the Karolinska Institutet Science Park in Stockholm and the company employs around 7 people. Kancera shares are traded on NASDAQ OMX First North and are held by around 1700 shareholders. Remium Nordic AB is Kancera’s Certified Adviser.

For additional information, please contact:
Thomas Olin, CEO: Tel +46 735 20 40 01
Address:
Kancera AB
Karolinska Institutet Science Park
Banvaktsvägen 22
SE 171 48 Solna
Sweden

Please visit the company’s web www.kancera.com