Aslan Pharma Partners with Taiwan for Cancer Drug

On August 16, 2017, Aslan Pharmaceuticals (Singapore), an oncology-focused biotechnology company, announced the signing of a research collaboration agreement with the Genomic Research Centre of Academia Sinica, the national academy of Taiwan, for the cancer drug, varlitinib. The collaboration will build on research that Aslan has been conducting to understand genetic mutations responsible for varlitinib sensitivity. In recent studies with varlitinib, major responses were seen in a number of patients with advanced disease and with difficult-to-treat tumors, such as biliary tract cancer.

The collaboration will also evaluate the effectiveness of combining varlitinib with Aslan’s other lead candidate, ASLAN003, an oral, once-daily small molecule inhibitor of dihydro-orotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), in animal models for gastric, colorectal, and lung cancers, in addition to other tumor types.

Varlitinib is a potent, reversible, small molecule pan-HER inhibitor that is currently being developed across multiple indications, including biliary tract, gastric, metastatic breast, and metastatic colorectal cancers. ASLAN003 is currently being developed in acute myeloid leukemia.