ProNAi Therapeutics, a clinical-stage drug development company advancing targeted therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer, has changed its corporate name to Sierra Oncology and that its shares will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol SRRA. The company's new name reflects its evolution into an oncology focused company advancing an emerging pipeline of promising therapies that target the DNA Damage Response (DDR) network.
"We believe there is a significant opportunity for therapeutics that target the DDR network to have broad potential in the treatment of cancer, and that by successfully advancing our new drug candidates in this field we may generate substantial long-term value for our company," said Dr. Nick Glover, president and CEO of Sierra Oncology. "Our new name, Sierra Oncology, reflects our focus on this approach and the commitment of our management team to charting innovative paths for developing novel therapeutics against cancer."
Sierra Oncology is a clinical stage drug development company advancing targeted therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer. Our lead drug candidate, SRA737, is a highly selective, orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of Checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), a key cell cycle checkpoint and central regulator of the DNA Damage Response (DDR) network. In cancer cells, replication stress induced by oncogenes (e.g., MYC and RAS) combined with loss of function in tumor suppressors (e.g., p53 and ATM) results in persistent DNA damage and genomic instability. Targeted inhibition of the remaining components of the DDR network such as by SRA737 may be synthetically lethal to cancer cells and have utility as a monotherapy in a range of tumor indications. Chk1 is also believed to facilitate tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy or radiation-induced DNA damage and the combination of SRA737 with these standards-of-care may provide synergistic anti-tumor activity. SRA737 is currently being investigated in two Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced cancer.
Sierra Oncology is also advancing SRA141, a potent, selective and orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of the Cdc7 kinase undergoing preclinical development. Cdc7 is a key regulator of both DNA replication and the DDR network, making it a compelling emerging target for the potential treatment of a broad range of tumor types.
Sierra Oncology retains the global commercialization rights to both SRA737 and SRA141.
