Ribonexus (previously Aglaia Therapeutics) and French pharmaceutical group Pierre Fabre signed an exclusive license agreement on a series of Pierre Fabre-patented small molecules targeting the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A (eIF4A). This target is highly expressed in a variety of solid and hematologic cancers, including melanoma, and associated with resistance to many current therapies.
In a recent multi-institutional clinical trial, 71% of patients who received the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, before surgery had no detectable cancer remaining at the time of surgery.
