BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Dara BioSciences, Point Therapeutics, Bayer deal

October 15, 2007 7:00 AM UTC

Dara and POTP will reverse-merge. Dara stockholders will own 96.4% of the combined company, and POTP shareholders will own the remaining 3.6%. Dara's lead compound is KRN5500, a spicamycin derivative licensed from Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:2503; KNBWY, Tokyo, Japan) that is in Phase II testing to treat chronic neuropathic pain in cancer patients. Dara also has preclinical compound DB040, a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, for which it expects to submit an IND in 2008.

Dara said the newco also may conduct trials of POTP's talabostat in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and metastatic melanoma, if FDA releases a hold on development. The inhibitor of fibroblast activation protein (FAP), dipeptidyl peptidase-8 (DPP-8) and DPP-9 was in Phase III trials to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (see BioCentury, May 28). ...