Galera Therapeutics, Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of Nova Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company advancing a pan-NOS Inhibitor to treat patients with highly resistant forms of breast cancer, including metaplastic breast cancer and other refractory subsets of triple-negative breast cancer (“TNBC”).
In support of the acquisition, a syndicate of investors led by Ikarian Capital has invested approximately $3 million to purchase Galera common stock. Galera’s new lead program is the Investigator-sponsored Phase 1/2 trial of a pan-NOS Inhibitor on top of standard-of-care nab-paclitaxel and alpelisib in metaplastic breast cancer. The Company’s cash balance at closing is anticipated to fund operations into 2026 and through data readout from its lead program in metaplastic breast cancer. A second trial is planned for this agent in TNBC in collaboration with the I-SPY 2 consortium. The Company intends to support a third trial of Avasopasem, one of its small molecule dismutase mimetics, in patients with hormone-receptor positive (HR+) advanced breast cancer who have become resistant to conventional therapy. This trial is expected to commence enrollment in the first half of 2025.
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“Dismutase Mimetics and NOS inhibitors involve complementary pathways that play important roles in cancer, in the tumor microenvironment, in resistance to conventional chemoradiotherapy and in immuno-oncology,” said Mel Sorensen, M.D., President & CEO of Galera. “Substantial mechanistic and preclinical rationale for both agents in solid tumors, especially in breast cancer, has been generated by the companies and their collaborators. Both product candidates are in clinical stage development, having been well-characterized in many patients both in oncologic and non-oncologic indications. Galera has decided to focus its near-term development on the hardest-to-treat subsets of advanced breast cancer.”
The Company continues as Galera Therapeutics, Inc. and will be led by Dr. Sorensen, as President and Chief Executive Officer and Joel Sussman, as Chief Accounting Officer. A team of consultants comprising people from both Galera and Nova will manage the R&D of the company, in a capital efficient manner.
“I am excited about the ability to combine our technologies to address the unmet need of many breast cancer patients,” said Par S Hyare CEO of Nova Pharmaceuticals. “This agreement allows Galera and our collaborators the opportunity to advance our product candidates to the next stage of clinical development. The investigators at Houston Methodist have presented data showing several responses in the ongoing trial and we look forward to the data readout in the next nine to fifteen months under the capable leadership of Galera’s team.”
Source: GlobeNewsWire