HUYA Bioscience Licenses Chidamide Cancer Compound from Chipscreen Biosciences

HUYA Bioscience Licenses Chidamide Cancer Compound from Chipscreen Biosciences

March 06, 2007

    SAN DIEGO and SHENZHEN, China, March 6
/Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- HUYA Bioscience International, LLC,
announced today that it has exclusively licensed worldwide
rights outside China to the cancer compound chidamide from
Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd.  Chidamide, is an
investigational cancer compound currently approved to
initiate a Phase I clinical trial in China.

    Chidamide is an orally bioavailable histone deacetylase
(HDAC) inhibitor derived from the benzamide class.  Histone
deacetylase inhibitors are a new class of cancer drugs that
induce selective regulation of gene expression in cancer
cells.  Chidamide has exhibited preclinical efficacy and
pharmacokinetic properties that may translate into a
superior clinical profile over other HDAC inhibitors
currently in development or being marketed.

    HUYA will co-develop chidamide with Chipscreen through
Phase I clinical trials to be initiated shortly in China. 
Thereafter, HUYA plans to file an Investigational New Drug
application and commence clinical trials of
chidamide/HBI-8000 in the United States and Europe. 
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

    Mireille Gingras, HUYA's President and Chief Executive
Officer, stated, "We are excited to complete what we
believe is the first license and 
co-development deal of such an innovative investigational
pharmaceutical from a China-based company.  HUYA's mission
is to comprehensively source proprietary late preclinical
and early clinical drug candidates from China for
development and commercialization in Western markets.  This
approach is significantly strengthened by partnership and
cooperation on early stage clinical trials in China."

    Xian-Ping Lu, President and Chief Scientific Officer of
Chipscreen, commented, "We are glad to work with HUYA
to continue clinical development of such a promising new
drug candidate for cancer.  HUYA's team of cancer drug
development and regulatory development experts will be
instrumental in allowing our two companies to expedite the
development of chidamide in the United States and Europe
and maximize the investment we have made in chidamide to
date.  We look forward to a long and productive
relationship with HUYA."

    About HUYA Bioscience International, LLC

    HUYA Bioscience International, LLC, with offices in San
Diego and Shanghai, capitalizes on the explosive growth of
the biotechnology industry in China.  HUYA identifies and
licenses promising Chinese pharmaceuticals for
commercialization in Western markets.  Using its management
team and advisors, HUYA lowers the product development risk
through the comprehensive sourcing of proprietary
preclinical and early clinical stage pharmaceuticals from
China.  HUYA partners the development of such innovative
investigational pharmaceuticals with biotech companies in
China so that the initial clinical research is performed in
China.  Later clinical development is expected to be
completed in the United States and Europe.  Further
information about the company is available at
www.huyabio.com.

    About Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd.

    Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd. is a leading
China-based life sciences company that specializes in
discovering and developing proprietary small molecule
therapeutics, particularly in the area of receptor
signaling. The company also provides a full suite of
service solutions for the life sciences industry worldwide.
 Central to Chipscreen's drug discovery platform are the
company's core capabilities including integration of  in
silico design, high content screening, pathway expression
profiling, PK/PD screening, and informatics in the early
stages of the discovery process. Chipscreen has increased
the efficiency and accelerated the discovery of new
medicines through its proprietary chemical genomics-based
approach.  Chipscreen operates it business from a
state-of-the-art facility in Shenzhen, China, which is
equipped with the latest computational & medicinal
chemistry, scale-up synthesis, natural product chemistry,
formulation, analytic method development and validation,
biology, high throughput screening, microarray, and
informatics resources.  Further information about the
company is available at www.chipscreen.com.

    About Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors for Cancer

    Aberrant silencing of tumor suppressor genes is one of
the key mechanisms involved in oncogenesis. Repression of
gene expression is established by the action of histone
deacetylases (HDACs), which modify histone proteins in
chromatin.  Decreased histone acetylation, due to
over-expression or aberrant activation of HDACs is
associated with the development of cancer.  HDAC inhibitors
(HDACIs) have been shown to inhibit proliferation of a broad
spectrum of human tumor cell lines in vitro and to have in
vivo anti-tumor activity in human tumor xenograft models.
Currently, Several HDACI are in phase II/III trials for
various cancers and one has recently gained marketing
approval in the United States.  HDACIs thus represent a
promising class of anti-tumor agents with a novel mechanism
of action.

    For more information, please contact: 

    HUYA Bioscience International, LLC
    USA: Mireille Gingras, Ph.D.            China: Wen
Chen, M.S., M.B.A.
    President and Chief Executive Officer   Director
Business Development
    HUYA Bioscience International, LLC      HUYA Bioscience
International
    [phone]                         
[e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    Web site: www.huyabio.com

    Media Contact:
    Karen Sparks
    [phone]
    [e-mail] 

    Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd.
    Xian-Ping Lu, Ph.D.
    President and Chief Scientific Officer
    Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Ltd.
    86-(755) 26711889
    [e-mail]
    Web site: http://www.chipscreen.com


SOURCE  HUYA Bioscience International, LLC