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Article: NewCo News: Aquinox Targets SHIP Enzyme, Sets Sail With $14.5M Series A.
- Article from:
- BIOWORLD Today
- Article date:
- November 3, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Staff Writer
Canadian start-up Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $14.5 million in its first major financing round to advance an early stage pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics in cancer and inflammatory disease.
Founded in 2004 as a spinout of the University of British Columbia and the BC Cancer Agency, the company builds on recent discoveries of highly selective drugs that target a SH2-containing inositol phosphatase, or SHIP, a biochemical enzyme that regulates the PI3 kinase pathway. That pathway is known for regulating cell growth and survival, so when the SHIP enzyme "is turned on, it down-regulates cell growth and division," said David Main, ...