Karyopharm Therapeutics has already identified the cell pathways that it seeks to moderate with the new drugs
Predix Pharmaceuticals co-founders Dr. Sharon Shacham and Dr. Michael Kauffman, along with two others, have founded a new biopharmaceutical company in the US: Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. Predix merged with Epix Pharmaceuticals, which was traded on Nasdaq before going out of business in September 2009.
Shacham was SVP drug development at Epix, and Kauffman served as CEO before his resignation from the company in mid-2008 signaled the decline of the company. Shacham is now CEO of Karyopharm and is its clinical advisor.
Karyopharm aims to develop new small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and diseases related to cell proliferation. The drugs will target the nuclear pore complex machinery, which controls the import and export of proteins between the nucleus and cytoplasm of the cell. The company has already identified the cell pathways that it seeks to moderate with the new drugs, using a technique developed by Shacham.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 7, 2010
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