Vescor LLC, a new company focused on discovery and development of autophagy targeted therapeutics for cancer treatment, was formed by MD Anderson Cancer Center, Deerfield Management and two autophagy experts, Eileen White, deputy director and associate director for Basic Science, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and Alec Kimmelman, chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center and a member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone.
Vescor, advised by its scientific founders White and Kimmelman, will develop small molecule inhibitors of a number of protein targets at critical nodes of the autophagy cascade, perform investigational new drug enabling studies, and move these into clinical development.
MD Anderson’s Institute for Applied Cancer Science, in combination with Deerfield, will provide drug discovery and development expertise, together with translational research focused at advancing autophagy therapeutics into trials in melanoma, lung and pancreatic cancers.
Vescor’s core activities will be performed at IACS, while managerial and operational expertise will be provided by both IACS and Deerfield.
