IGF-1R Antagonists

The present Competitive Intelligence Report about IGF-1R Antagonists provides a competitor evaluation in the field of novel molecular entities directed against the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) or its ligands IGF-1 and IGF-2 for treatment of cancer as of July 2009. Purchase of the downloadable pdf report includes a 6-month online access to the data of the report and any updates since the publication date. Access data will be sent by e-mail and allow online work with the project data to print or export an individual report.

Although the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) was first cloned in 1986, it was the success of targeted drugs such as trastuzumab and imatinib that tyrosine kinase inhibitors and growth factor receptor blockers became hot targets. Now companies are aggressively pursuing compounds that target IGF-1R. Other reasons for the long delay in bringing compounds against IGF-1R into the clinic may be:

• 1. the fear that blocking IGF-1R in cancer therapy would also block the insulin receptor and signaling (70 % homology with IGF-1R) and, thus might be diabetogenic;
• 2. the expression of IGF-1R in normal tissue throughout the body. As of July 2009, the field considerably has widened with seven specific monoclonal antibodies and three specific small molecules against IGF-1R in mid-stage clinical development and further six specific IGF-1R antagonists in preclinical stages.

Safety so far has not been the limiting step in developing IGF-1R antagonist. Combination studies with other anticancer therapies and the emergence of bispecific o rmulti-specific anti-IGF-1R antagonists indicate that efficacy of specific IGF-1R antagonists rather may limit the scope of clinical utility. In fact, the first specific anti-IGF-1R program has been discontinued and next generation molecules evaluate the efficacy spectrum of bispecific molecules, e.g. against EGF-R and IGF-1R, or of molecules with even multikinase specificity including IGF-1R.

The report includes a compilation of current active projects in research and development of IGF-1R Antagonists in oncology. In addition, the report lists company-specific R&D pipelines of IGF-1R antagonists. 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.