Aptose Biosciences Revenue and Competitors

Aptose Biosciences is a science-driven biotechnology company advancing first-in-class agents to treat life-threatening cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML), high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and other hematologic malignancies. Based on insights into the genetic and epigenetic profiles of certain cancers and patient populations, Aptose is building a pipeline of novel oncology therapies directed at dysregulated processes and signaling pathways. Aptose is developing targeted medicines for precision treatment of these diseases, based on a patientￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢs specific gene expression signature. In the treatment of cancer, this strategy is intended to optimize efficacy and quality of life by minimizing the cytotoxic side effects associated with conventional therapies. CG026806 (CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806) is a highly potent first-in-class pan-FLT3/BTK inhibitor. This small molecule therapeutic agent, exhibits a picomolar IC50 toward the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 with the Internal Tandem Duplication (FLT3-ITD) and significant potency against other mutant forms of FLT3. Because of the potency of CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 against the FLT3 enzyme, it may become an effective therapy for AML patients, including the subset of patients having the FLT3-ITD, which occurs in approximately 30% of patients with AML and is associated with poor prognosis. Importantly, CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 targets other oncogenic kinases which may also be operative in AML, thereby potentially allowing the agent to become an important therapeutic option for a difficult-to-treat patient population. In addition to potent inhibition of wild type and mutant forms of the FLT3 enzyme, CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 is a highly potent, reversible, non-covalent inhibitor of the wild type and mutant forms of the BTK enzymes. Overexpression of BTK drives certain B cell malignancies, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and others. Treatment of such B cell malignancies with covalent BTK inhibitors that target the cysteine residue in the active site of BTK can lead to drug resistance via mutation of the cysteine amino acid residue to a serine residue (BTK-C481S mutant). CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 targets the ATP-binding pocket of BTK through a reversible, non-covalent mechanism, thereby allowing CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 to retain low nM potency against the BTK-C481S mutant enzyme. Thus, CGￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢ806 may serve as a novel therapeutic agent to treat B cell malignancy patients that are refractory, resistant or intolerant to covalent BTK inhibitors. APTO-253, the Companyￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢs second program, is a small molecule therapeutic agent that inhibits expression of the c-Myc oncogene without causing general myelosuppression of the bone marrow. The c-Myc oncogene is overexpressed in hematologic cancers, including AML. C-Myc is a transcription factor that regulates cell growth, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, and overexpression amplifies new sets of genes to promote oncogenesis. APTO-253 dramatically downregulates expression of the c-Myc oncogene in AML cells and depletes those cells of the c-Myc oncoprotein, leading to apoptotic cell death in AML cells. Thus APTO-253 may serve as safe and effective c-Myc inhibitor for AML that combines well with other agents and does not impact the normal bone marrow. Aptoseￃﾢ￢ﾂﾬ￢ﾄﾢs leadership team comprises accomplished industry, financial and clinical research professionals who are dedicated to building a comprehensive anticancer drug pipeline and clinical development programs focused on targeted therapeutics directed against dysregulated oncogenic processes in patients with life-threatening hematologic malignancies.