Aurora Kinase Inhibitors

The present Competitive Intelligence Report about Aurora Kinase Inhibitors provides a competitor evaluation in the field of synthetic molecules targeting aurora kinase for treatment of cancer as of June 2009.

Mitosis, a central event in tumor growth, is highly regulated to ensure accurate and equal segregation of genetic materials from parent cells to daughter cells. Main effectors of this process are mitotic spindles and centrosomes.157 Disruption of the process results in aneuploidy, and genomic instability renders the cellular condition optimal for apoptosis to occur. The rationale of targeting mitosis in cancer therapy is substantiated by the successful clinical development of tubulin-disrupting agents, such as vinca alkaloids and taxanes.

The coordination of progression through mitosis is mainly orchestrated by protein phosphorylation insured by several serine/threonine kinases of which the three main mitotic kinase families are the cyclin-dependent kinase CDKs), the polo-like kinases (Plks), and the Aurora kinases. Mammals have three Aurora kinases, named Aurora A, B and C. Aurora A has distinct functions while Aurora B and C share same functions, though all three kinases are involved in the control of many processes required for mitosis.

The report includes a compilation of current active projects in research and development of synthetic molecules targeting aurora kinase. In addition, the report lists company-specific R&D pipelines of aurora kinase targeting molecules. Competitor projects are listed in a tabular format providing information on:

• Drug Codes,
• Target / Mechanism of Action,
• Class of Compound,
• Company,
• Product Category,
• Indication,
• R&D Stage and
• additional comments with a hyperlink leading to the source of information.