July 8, 2009
AVEO Pharmaceuticals Granted Patent for Protection of its Directed Complementation Technology
Novel Technology Allows Rapid Production of Genetically Defined In Vivo Tumor Models
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 8, 2009 – AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leveraging breakthrough discoveries in cancer biology to discover, develop and commercialize targeted oncology therapies, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted to AVEO U.S. Patent No. 7,556,796. This patent provides robust protection for AVEO’s “directed complementation” technology, which significantly enhances the flexibility and efficiency of AVEO’s research and development programs and supports the company’s proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform.
“We are very pleased to receive this patent recognizing AVEO’s directed complementation technology, which greatly enhances the speed at which AVEO can develop its proprietary in vivo mouse models of cancer and further differentiates our approach to cancer drug development,” said Tuan Ha-Ngoc, president and chief executive officer of AVEO Pharmaceuticals. “AVEO has already used directed complementation technology to produce model tumors driven by more than 50 different oncogenes. This unique approach enables us to create tumors whose in vivo proliferation and survival are driven by the target gene of interest, providing an invaluable tool to assess the in vivo activity of a broad range of candidate targeted therapies and the relevant cancer biomarkers.”
About Directed Complementation Technology
Directed complementation allows rapid production of murine primary tumors driven by an oncogene of choice. This enables AVEO to produce mouse models of cancer that are custom-engineered for use with any given targeted therapeutic. In addition to usefulness in testing the efficacy of targeted therapeutics, these custom-engineered tumor models are particularly well-suited to help search for and validate biomarkers relating to specific drugs or specific biological pathways. The term “directed complementation” reflects that in this technique, an inducible recombinant oncogene originally responsible for growth of a tumor is switched off and then functionally complemented by a recombinant oncogene of choice.
About AVEO
AVEO is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel, targeted cancer therapeutics. AVEO’s proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform enables the company to pursue highly efficient drug development strategies in oncology that increase the probability of clinical success and provides a discovery engine for high-value targets and therapies. This approach has resulted in a balanced pipeline of novel cancer therapies focused on well-validated targets (VEGFR, EGFR) and promising novel targets (HGF, FGFR, ErbB3 and NOTCH), as well as collaborations with Eli Lilly, Merck, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough and Biogen Idec. The company’s lead product, tivozanib (AV-951), a triple VEGF receptor inhibitor, recently completed Phase 2 clinical development in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer and is expected to enter Phase 3 development in 2009. Through a combination of internal drug discovery and selective in-licensing of targeted therapeutics, AVEO is building a diversified product pipeline and moving toward its vision of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.aveopharma.com.
