Meton Pharmaceutical Completes Series A Financing Round

Healthcare Author: Siren Chen May 23, 2022 08:32 PM (GMT+8)

IDH1 mutations have been identified in acute myeloid leukemia and glioma. The IDH inhibitor developed by Meton Pharmaceutical targeting mutant IDH proteins is expected to start clinical trials at the end of this year.

Biomedicine

Meton Pharmaceuticals (Chinese: 迈同生物医药) announced the completion of the Series A round of financing on May 17. This round of funding is exclusively invested by Langtian Pharmaceutical Group (Chinese: 朗天医药集团).

The funds will be used to promote the clinical trial of small-molecule inhibitors targeting isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and further accelerate the research and development of other product pipelines.

Founded in 2020, Meton Pharmaceutical is committed to the R&D of innovative drugs. Their research path is to target tumor-related metabolic enzymes for potential therapeutic solutions.

So far, three international PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent application for IDH1 inhibitor has legal effect in the United States, Japan, Singapore and China. Preclinical data show the safety and effectiveness of IDH1 inhibitors in treating glioma and acute myeloid leukemia. 

At present, the project is in the preparatory stage of Investigational New Drug (IND) application, and it is planned to start the clinical trial by the end of this year. IDH activity assay kit will also be submitted at the same time.

IDH1 encodes isocitrate dehydrogenase 1, which participates in the citric acid cycle. The R132 mutations in IDH1 are a function mutation leading to an enzyme-catalyzing conversion of α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) to 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG). The accumulation of 2 - HG can promote tumorigenesis.

IDH1 has been investigated as a therapeutic target in cancers such as glioma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and acute myeloid leukemia. With only one phase III trial and one phase I trial published to date according to the Center for Drug Evaluation, NMPA.