Kancera strengthens patent rights related to ROR antibody therapy

Kancera owns, through its co-founder Professor Hakan Mellstedt, certain rights to WO 2011/079902. This application was developed in collaboration with BioInvent AB and researchers at the Cancer Center Karolinska.

Kancera has previously reported that its proprietary small molecule ROR inhibitors selectively kill leukemic cells from CLL patients and pancreatic cancer cells.

With the additional acquired rights to therapeutic antibodies against ROR, the company possesses intellectual property for drugs that can attack the ROR cancer survival signal both from the outside (by antibodies) and from the inside (by small molecules) of the cancer cell.

This adds a new product line to the Kancera portfolio strengthening Kancera’s leadership in the ROR field. Kancera has the ambition to develop these ROR antibodies in partnership with companies that specialize in antibody drug development.

The financial terms of the agreement between Kancera and BioInvent are not disclosed.

About ROR
ROR is a family of receptor tyrosine kinase receptors originally reported to be linked to fetus development and consists of two receptors, ROR1 and ROR2. Today it is also known that ROR receptors play a role also for cancer cells. It has been shown that inhibition of ROR causes certain cancer cells to eliminate themselves through apoptosis. Since ROR receptors are not present in healthy cells in adults, it is anticipated that a drug targeting ROR will selectively attack the tumor much more forcefully than healthy tissue.

Kancera’s co-founder Professor Håkan Mellstedt has shown that Kancera´s ROR inhibitors are capable of killing cancer cells originating from pancreas and as well as leukemic cells. Professor Mellstedt and other scientists have further shown that ROR is a potential therapeutic target also in prostate-, breast- and lung cancer.

About Kancera AB (publ)
Kancera is engaged in drug development that takes its start in new treatment concepts and ends with a candidate drug. Kancera is currently developing medicines for the treatment of both leukemia and solid tumors that interferes with survival signaling and nutrient metabolism within the cancer cell.Kancera is also developing stem cell-based cancer models to study the candidate molecules before testing in humans. Kancera operates in Stockholm and employs approximately 20 people. The share is traded on the NASDAQ OMX First North and the number of shareholders is about 1500. Remium AB is Certified Adviser to Kancera.

For additional information, please contact:
Thomas Olin, CEO: Tel +46 735 20 40 01

Address:
Kancera AB (publ)
Karolinska Institutet Science Park
Banvaktsvägen 22
SE 171 48 Solna
Sweden

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