Galapagos NV (GLPYY.PK), a Belgian based biotechnology company engaged in developing anti-body therapies, reported developing a novel candidate drug, GLPG1790, to treat breast cancer. GLPG1790 has shown high activity against breast tumors that are triple-negative, for which the absence of estrogen or ER, progesterone or PR or HER2 receptors affects the prognosis for recovery, and no targeted therapeutic options are currently available.
Breast cancer is a disease in which tumor cells form in the breast tissue; and is one of the most common types of cancer in women.
Targeted drug treatments like Herceptin and Avastin attack specific types of breast cancer cells. Decisions on the best possible treatment with targeted drugs are based on tests for the presence of ER, PR and HER2. Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for one-fifth of breast cancers, and it usually affects young women. There are no targeted drugs available for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.
This candidate drug is a selective and potent inhibitor of a novel breast cancer target; the candidate drug has proven to be highly active against triple-negative breast cancer in a mouse xenograft model where it completely blocks tumor growth. GLPG1790 has good drug-like properties, and safety/tolerability studies with the candidate drug look favorable. Galapagos said it would begin preclinical trials with GLPG1790, and plans to initiate the first clinical trials in humans within a year. This novel program is fully proprietary to Galapagos.
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