Zentalis Pharmaceuticals and Tempus Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Research and Development Capabilities
Tempus’ platform will be used to further evaluate the DNA damage response pathway of Zentalis’ WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-c3, and potential future candidates
NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO, Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL) today announced a strategic collaboration with Tempus to leverage the company’s patient-derived organoid biological modeling platform to strengthen Zentalis’ discovery and research capabilities.
Zentalis CEO Anthony Sun commented, “We are thrilled to be entering into this collaboration with Tempus and its unique platform to help us discover and develop novel therapies aimed at a variety of cancers. This partnership provides Zentalis with access to Tempus’ one-of-a-kind resource to help validate our mechanistic discoveries, beginning with our WEE1 inhibitor, and ultimately to expand our growing product pipeline.”
Tempus’ proprietary platform has the ability to grow and recapitulate tumors both genetically and functionally, some of which can be used for DNA repair profiling and research on potential therapeutic sensitivity. In harnessing Tempus’ cutting-edge approach, the collaboration will initially aim to validate Zentalis’ WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-c3, and its DNA damage response pathway in genetically distinct patient populations. The platform will also be used to investigate additional novel targets of cancer pathways that may be identified by Zentalis, as well as support the study of Zentalis’ current product candidates across various indications.
“We believe that our library of patient-derived organoids is well positioned to better identify patient populations that could benefit from Zentalis' WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-c3,” said Marc Yoskowitz, Chief Strategy Officer of Tempus. “We look forward to applying the full potential of our platform to address the ever-increasing unmet needs of cancer patients.”
Zentalis retains full ownership of its therapeutic candidates.
About ZN-c3
ZN-c3 is an oral inhibitor of WEE1 in development for the treatment of advanced solid tumors. The inhibition of WEE1, a DNA damage response protein, aims to generate sufficient DNA damage in cancer cells, causing cell death, thereby preventing tumor growth and potentially causing tumor regression. Zentalis is currently conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors and expects to report data from the Phase 1 portion at the AACR Annual Meeting 2021. In addition, the Company is also conducting a Phase 1b trial evaluating ZN-c3 in combination with chemotherapy in patients with advanced ovarian cancer, with plans to initiate a Phase 2 trial investigating ZN-c3 as a monotherapy in patients with uterine serous carcinoma in 2021.
About Zentalis
Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers. The Company is developing a broad pipeline of potentially best-in-class oncology candidates, including ZN-c5, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for ER+/HER2- breast cancer, ZN-c3, a WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-d5, a BCL-2 inhibitor and ZN-e4, an EGFR inhibitor. Zentalis has operations in both New York and San Diego.
For more information, please visit www.zentalis.com. Follow Zentalis on Twitter at @ZentalisP and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/zentalis-pharmaceuticals.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our expectations surrounding the development, potential, safety, efficacy, and regulatory and clinical progress of our product candidates in the Unites States and globally, plans and timing for the initiation of and the release of data from our clinical trials and our ability to meet other key milestones, and activities in connection with our collaboration with Tempus. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has adversely impacted and may continue to adversely impact our business, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials; our limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future success and viability; we have and expect to continue to incur significant losses; our need for additional funding, which may not be available; our substantial dependence on the success of our lead product candidate; failure to identify additional product candidates and develop or commercialize marketable products; the early stage of our development efforts; potential unforeseen events during clinical trials could cause delays or other adverse consequences; risks relating to the regulatory approval process or ongoing regulatory obligations; failure to obtain U.S. or international marketing approval; our product candidates may cause serious adverse side effects; inability to maintain our collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; our reliance on third parties; effects of significant competition; the possibility of system failures or security breaches; risks relating to intellectual property; our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and significant costs as a result of operating as a public company. These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other filings with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.
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