Tarceva, while our first breakthrough product, is far from our only
oncology compound to hold promise for patients. While the entire oncology
drug discovery and development process can take more than a decade and
is thus subject to significant risk and attrition, we are confident in
the potential of our programs, in particular: OSI-930 and its back-up
OSI-817 and our IGF-1R program, where OSI-906 is the lead development
candidate. While OSI-906, for which we anticipate filing an IND (investigational
new drug application) in the fourth quarter of 2006, is also designed
as a tryosine kinase inhibitor, the receptor target is, in this case,
the IGF-1R receptor, which stimulates proliferation, enables oncogenic
transformation, and suppresses apoptosis. Inhibitors of IGF-1R are expected
to have broad utility in oncology; the over-expression of IGF-1R and/or
its ligands, or the down-regulation of ligand binding proteins, occurs
in numerous human malignancies, including lung, colon, breast, prostate,
brain and skin cancers. OSI-906 could be useful both as a single agent
and in the potentiation of other molecular targeted therapies such as
Tarceva. |
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