To mark its 10th anniversary, Drug Discovery & Development magazine invited pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to reflect on the history and made predictions about future of the industry. Featured here are verbatim comments from this company.

AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Headquarters 
Cambridge, Mass.

Location(s)
Cambridge, Mass.

Years in Drug Research 
6 years

Spokesperson
Tuan Ha-Ngoc, President and Chief Executive Officer

Web site

About the company/organization
AVEO is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel, targeted cancer therapeutics. AVEO’s proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform enables the company to pursue highly efficient drug development strategies in oncology that increase the probability of clinical success and provides a discovery engine for high-value targets. This approach has resulted in a balanced pipeline of novel cancer therapies focused on well-validated targets (VEGFR, EGFR) and promising novel targets (HGF, FGFR), as well as collaborations with Eli Lilly, Merck, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough. AVEO is currently conducting Phase 2 clinical trials with its lead product candidate AV-951, a novel, triple VEGFR inhibitor, in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Through a combination of internal drug discovery and selective in-licensing of targeted therapeutics, AVEO is building a diversified product pipeline and moving toward its vision of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.

A 10-year perspective: Advances and roadblocks
Since AVEO was founded in 2002 by several leaders in cancer genetics, the company has leveraged its core personalized medicine/cancer biology Human Response Platform (HRP™) to guide clinical development of two in-licensed small molecule drugs and discover AV-299, its lead monoclonal antibody product which recently entered clinical development. AVEO advanced this antibody from discovery to the clinic in only three years.

AVEO’s lead product candidate, AV-951, is highly potent and specific for VEGF receptors 1, 2 and 3, and is currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial in more than 200 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. AV-412 is a next generation oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor of EGFR that is being tested in Phase 1 clinical trials.

R&D Challenges in the next 10 years
One challenge facing all biotech and pharma companies, and particularly oncology companies, is successfully moving a drug candidate from preclinical development through to commercialization. An estimated 95% of oncology drugs that enter the clinic fail, in part due to the high rate of false positives associated the traditional xenograft model of preclinical testing. However, AVEO’s proprietary Human Response Platform (HRP) is designed to meet and overcome these challenges by matching our molecularly targeted drugs to responsive patient populations. HRP is based on the company’s proprietary, genetically-defined in vivo mouse models of human cancer, in which each model is engineered to contain signature genetic mutations that are present in human disease. By utilizing these in vivo mouse models in preclinical studies, AVEO is able to more accurately predict responsive patient populations, thereby matching the right cancer drugs to the right patients.

Business/regulatory challenges for the next 10 years
As a private company, AVEO – like most other small to midsized development-stage companies – will face the challenges of prioritizing resources as our pipeline continues to mature. With a very promising VEGFR inhibitor entering late stage clinical development shortly, a novel EGFR inhibitor completing Phase 1 trials near-term and more than 10 unpartnered antibody programs in our pipeline, we will need to be very strategic as we continue to advance these efforts while efficiently managing our resources.

Bold Prediction: Where will the company/organization be in 10 years?
In 10 years I predict that AVEO will have successfully brought our novel cancer therapeutics to market by matching our molecularly targeted drugs to responsive patient populations, and will remain at the forefront of realizing the vision for personalized medicine in cancer.

Bold Prediction: Where will the industry will be in 10 years?
We have the right genetic information and tools to realize the promise of personalized medicine in oncology – or at least several key tumor types - within the next 10 years.