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August 17, 2005
Kinex Acquires Exclusive License to Develop Drugs for Hearing Loss
Kinex Pharmaceuticals recently entered into an agreement with The Research Foundation of the State University at New York and Roswell Park Cancer Institute that provides the Company exclusive worldwide rights to develop Src kinase inhibitors to treat hearing loss.
The technology was discovered as a result of an academic collaboration between Drs. David Hangauer, Donald Henderson and Thomas Nicotera. Hangauer, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Kinex said “We are pleased by this opportunity to work with Dr. Henderson, a world renowned hearing expert, to translate our collaborative research into novel therapeutics for hearing loss”. Henderson is a professor in the department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences at the University at Buffalo and a well recognized leader in the field noise induced hearing loss.
Kinex plans to use the licensed Intellectual Property to develop a drug to both treat and protect from noise-induced hearing loss. In addition, hearing loss experienced by cancer patients as a result of chemotherapy will be studied. Previous work has demonstrated that when chinchillas are treated with Kinex drugs, they are protected from damage normally caused by the generation of free radicals. Since these drugs exhibit virtually no toxicity, the Company believes that there will be a large market for this kind of therapeutic. The results that led to these conclusions will be presented by Henderson at an international meeting to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario in early October. “There is a keen interest on the part of the military for drugs that will protect soldiers on active duty. The drugs being developed by Kinex exhibit the kind of profile that is necessary for prophylactic treatment. We are extremely enthusiastic about the future of such a product”, said Henderson. More than 28 million Americans suffer from hearing loss; about one-third can attribute their hearing loss to noise exposure.
Kinex is a drug discovery and development company located in Buffalo, New York. The company has a Src inhibitor in pre-clinical development for oncology and plans to develop Src inhibitors for additional indications including hearing loss and osteoporosis.