Trapping a prime target

Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. bet that its novel fibroblast growth factor ligand trap would avoid the toxicity issues that have hampered development of FGF receptor antibodies and small molecule inhibitors. With Phase I data in hand the company now is collecting a nice payoff from Human Genome Sciences Inc., which last week licensed FP-1039 as the big biotech seeks to fill out its oncology pipeline alongside its Benlysta franchise.

The FGFR tyrosine kinase family has long been viewed as an attractive drug target. Its four members are functionally and structurally similar to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor and play a similar role in driving tumor angiogenesis. There also is mounting evidence that mutation or amplification of FGFR drives the proliferation and survival of subpopulations of many cancers, including breast and lung cancer (see SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, Jan. 13). ...