Celgene skips SKP2

Celgene Corp.and academic collaboratorshave designed the firstsmall molecule inhibitor of an E2 component in the ubiquitin pathway.¹Despite positive data in vitro, the team thinks it will be difficult to optimize the cancer therapeutic for the clinic and has abandoned its program targeting the ubiquitin pathway. Instead, Celgene is setting its sights on other post-translational modifications that regulate protein degradation.

For more than a decade, researchers have been developing ways to target the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in cancer. Only one marketed therapy actually hits the pathway-the proteasome inhibitor Velcade bortezomib, which is marketed in the U.S. by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'sMillennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.subsidiary to treat multiple myeloma (MM) and mantle cell lymphoma...