Onconova Therapeutics® is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing promising drug compounds and versatile non-ATP competitive protein kinase inhibitors to fight and treat cancer.
Targeting Tumors, Not Healthy Cells
Onconova has created an extensive library of selective anti-cancer agents designed to work against specific molecular and cellular targets. These compounds are currently in various stages of development—from preclinical work to the Phase III setting. They work through selective inhibitory activity of tumor cells (blood and solid), including some tumors cells which are unresponsive to other drugs.
Powerful, Versatile Anti-cancer Agents
Drugs designed to disrupt cancerous cell replication include polo-like kinase (PLK) and Phosphoinositide-3 (PI-3) kinase small-molecule inhibitors. Inhibiting PLK and PI-3 kinase within cancer cells can cause apoptosis (cell death), through the formation of multipolar spindles and centrosomal aberrations, as well as disrupting translation of cap dependent messenger RNA. The presence of these constitutively active enzymes (PLK & PI-3) has been attributed to many forms of cancer including cancers that are resistant to standard anti-cancer drugs.
Onconova is developing anti-cancer products that are geared to treat a wide variety of cancers while not impacting normal cells. To do this our researchers are striving to overcome several barriers associated with conventional cancer medicines.