Zeltia SA : PharmaMar presents five new trials with its marine-based drugs at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
04/11/2013| 05:00am US/Eastern

PharmaMar is a biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Grupo Zeltia; it is a world leader in discovering, developing and selling marine-based drugs to treat cancer. Yondelis® is Spain’s first anti-tumour drug. Yondelis® is currently approved for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) in 42 countries outside the EEA, and for platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer (ROC) in 31 of those countries plus Brazil. Yondelis® is approved for STS and platinum-sensitive ROC in all 30 countries of the EEA. Yondelis® is also undergoing Phase II trials on breast and paediatric cancers. PharmaMar has four other compounds in clinical development: Aplidin®, Zalypsis®, PM01183 and PM060184. PharmaMar also has a rich pipeline of pre-clinical candidates and a major R&D programme.

Zeltia S.A. is a world-leading biopharmaceutical company specialised in the development of marine- based drugs for use in oncology and central nervous system illnesses. Grupo Zeltia consists mainly of the following companies: PharmaMar, the world-leading biotechnology company in advancing cancer care through the discovery and development of innovative marine-derived medicines; Genómica, Spain’s leading molecular diagnostics company; Sylentis, dedicated to researching therapeutic applications of gene silencing (RNAi); and a chemical division comprising Zelnova and Xylazel, two highly profitable companies that are leaders in their respective market segments.

The oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, and correspond to 90% of the biosphere. For millions of years, innumerable forms of marine life have evolved to produce an immense variety of chemical entities of exclusive sophistication. Among these, there are molecules with potent biological activities, developed as a form of biochemical warfare to survive in an extremely competitive environment. PharmaMar has identified the anti-tumour potential of these molecules, and is actively developing them as innovative treatments for cancer. Over the past 25 years, PharmaMar has assembled the world’s largest library of extracts from more than 100’000 different marine organisms, of which about 30’000 are micro-organisms and more than 70’000 invertebrate organisms, reflecting the extraordinary biodiversity of the sea.

One of the company’s commitments is to develop drugs to treat rare (“orphan”) diseases, i.e. those affecting under 5 out of every 100,000 people, according to the EU’s definition. PharmaMar has a strong portfolio of marine origin compounds in development

PharmaMar states its research works to provide solutions that improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families.

It has a library of 200,000 extracts from 100,000 different marine organisms available for drug screening.

In more news from this marine drug discovery leader.

SALT LAKE CITY, March 26, Mar 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) — Myriad Genetics, Inc. MYGN +2.28% today announced that it has signed an agreement with PharmaMar, a leader in the development of marine-derived drugs. Under the terms of the agreement, Myriad will conduct homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) testing on patients enrolled in PharmaMar’s Phase II clinical study of PM1183, a novel drug candidate which induces double-stranded DNA breaks to cause cell death. This partnership represents Myriad Genetics’ first publicly announced commercial collaboration with its new HRD test.