BiPar Begins Phase 2 Study of Lead PARP Inhibitor in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Based on Overexpression Biom...( BRUSSELS Belgium and BRISBANE Cal...),Health

BRUSSELS, Belgium and BRISBANE, Calif., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- BiPar Sciences, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer therapies, today announced it has initiated a Phase 2 study of its lead PARP inhibitor, BSI-201, in patients with triple-negative breast cancer that do not express the estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors.

The company designed the Phase 2 trial in this indication-which represents a major unmet medical need-based on molecular biomarker data presented today showing that breast tumors that are estrogen-negative and progesterone- negative were more likely to overexpress PARP, as were HER2-negative tumors. The data were presented at European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-National Cancer Institute-American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting on "Molecular Markers in Cancer" in Brussels.

"Our research shows clearly that not only is PARP overexpressed in breast tumors generally, it is even more likely to be overexpressed in triple- negative tumors. That suggests that PARP inhibition may be a particularly effective way to target those hard-to-treat cancers," said BiPar Executive Vice President Barry Sherman, M.D. "Our Phase 2 trial of BSI-201 will build on those insights and, if successful, will serve as powerful proof of our strategy to use molecular biomarker data to focus our clinical studies of BiPar's PARP inhibitors on tumors that markedly upregulate PARP."

Patients with triple-negative breast cancer, who make up 10 to 15 percent of all patients, have few effective therapeutic options. Neither targeted therapies such as Herceptin and Tykerb nor anti-estrogens such as tamoxifen provide a benefit, and triple-negative tumors are associated with a high rate of relapse. Such cancers are particularly prevalent in premenopausal African- American women.

"We are very excited about being able to offer patients with triple- negative metastatic breast cancer treatment
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