NewGen: Compositions matter

The former senior executives of ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. have reunited to build another cancer company - NewGen Therapeutics Inc. The team has learned a few things, and as a result will focus the newco on NCEs with better IP positions.

ChemGenex had been focused on Omapro omacetaxine for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). But the compound was ineligible for a composition of matter patent because of prior art, specifically because the naturally occurring compound had been used in China for many years to treat CML, according to Harry Pedersen, NewGen's co-founder, president and CEO and the former CBO at ChemGenex...