Cend Therapeutics Deal with Qilu Pharmaceuticals

Cend Therapeutics and Qilu Pharmaceutical, a major Chinese pharmaceutical company, announced in February a Collaboration and License Agreement to develop and commercialize Cend’s investigational drug, CEND-1, in Greater China. This is a very compelling validation of Cend's ground-breaking advance in the treatment of solid cancer tumors, the last great hurtle for the new exciting wave in cancer immunotherapy.

CEND-1 has generated encouraging Phase 2 clinical results in combination with standard of care chemotherapy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which remains a significant health issue in China. Poor penetration of drugs into tumors is a major issue in cancer therapy as it limits access and therefore efficacy of current therapies. The CendR Platform provides a targeted tissue penetration capability to specifically enhance drug delivery to tumors. The presence of immunosuppressive cell types, such as T regulatory cells, in the tumor microenvironment can limit the ability of patients’ immune systems to fight their cancer and render some tumors refractory to immunotherapies. Cend is applying its technology to deplete such immunosuppressive cells from the tumor microenvironment to enable patients’ immune system and immunotherapies to more effectively fight cancer.

This appears to be another home run for a San Diego cancer therapeutics company, along with Idec Pharmaceuticals over two decades ago. Mentus is proud to have developed both companies' websites. You can see Cend at https://cendrx.com/