- Lung
cancer is one of the most prevalent and deadly cancers worldwide. Genprex
aims to develop cutting-edge gene therapies to improve outcomes, which
have not changed significantly in the past 25 years despite radical
advances in drug development and novel therapeutic standards.
- Genprex
holds a portfolio of 30 issued and two pending patents covering
technologies and targeted molecular therapies, all exclusively licensed
from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Genprex technologies
seek to bridge a critical gap by combining with targeted therapies and
immunotherapies to provide treatments to large patient populations who
otherwise would not benefit from these important cancer therapies, or who
have become resistant to them.
- Genprex
had a cash position of $10.3 million as of September 30, 2018.
Genprex Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX) is a clinical-stage gene
therapy company developing potentially life-changing technologies for cancer
patients based upon a unique proprietary technology platform, including Genprex’s
initial product candidate, Oncoprex immunogene therapy for non-small cell lung
cancer (NSCLC). Genprex’s platform technologies are designed to administer
cancer-fighting genes by encapsulating them into nanoscale hollow spheres
called nanovesicles, which are then administered intravenously and taken up by
tumor cells where they express proteins that are missing or found in low
quantities.
Research and Development
Genprex holds a portfolio of 30 issued and two pending
patents covering its technologies and targeted molecular therapies. The
company’s research and development program is focused on identifying and
developing leading-edge gene therapies that can be used alone or in combination
with other therapies for treatment of cancer.
Genprex’s initial product candidate is Oncoprex, an
immunogene therapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Oncoprex works by interrupting cell signaling pathways that cause replication
and proliferation of cancer cells, re-establishes pathways for apoptosis (or
programmed cell death) in cancer cells, and modulates the immune response
against cancer cells. Oncoprex has also been shown to block mechanisms that
create drug resistance.
Preclinical research is being conducted with the goal of
developing Oncoprex to be administered with targeted therapies in other solid
tumors, and with immunotherapies in NSCLC and other solid tumors. In addition,
Genprex has conducted and plans to continue research into other tumor
suppressor genes associated with chromosome 3p21.3, as well as other potential
applications of the company’s immunogene therapy platform.
Clinical Trials
Genprex is currently conducting the second phase of a phase
I/II clinical trial at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston. The company plans to expand its clinical program by adding a new
clinical study evaluating Oncoprex in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor
for treatment of Stage IV or recurrent NSCLC. In research presented at the 2017
Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington,
D.C., Genprex’s collaborators showed that TUSC2 in combination with PD-1
checkpoint inhibition has a significantly greater anti-tumor effect in lung
cancer than either agent alone. The research also shows that TUSC2 in
combination with PD-1 blockade has synergistic activity in upregulating natural
killer (NK) cells, correlating with prolonged survival in mice.
TUSC2 (Tumor Suppressor Candidate 2) is a tumor suppressor
gene that is absent or deficient in cancer cells of many different cancer
types.
The Market
Genprex technologies seek to bridge a critical gap by
combining with targeted therapies and immunotherapies to provide treatments to
large patient populations who would otherwise not be candidates for those
therapies or who have become resistant to them. Genprex technologies are being
developed to overcome genomic limitations which are inherent in targeted
therapies and immunotherapies in order to provide new treatment solutions to
large cancer populations, such as those with lung cancer.
Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon,
breast and prostate cancers combined. NSCLC is the most common type of lung
cancer, accounting for about 85 percent of all lung cancers, according to the American
Cancer Society (“ACS”). Despite radical advances in drug development and novel
therapeutic standards, survival for late stage lung cancer has not improved
significantly in the past 25 years.
Senior Management
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer J. Rodney Varner, JD,
is a co-founder of Genprex and has served in these roles since August 2012. He
has more than 35 years of legal experience with large and small law firms and
as outside general counsel of a Nasdaq-listed company. Varner has served as counsel
in company formation, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, other business
transactions, protection of trade secrets and other intellectual property, real
estate, and business litigation. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas and
has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Court and the U.S. Tax Court.
Julien L. Pham, M.D., MPH, is president and chief operating
officer of Genprex. In March 2013, Dr. Pham co-founded RubiconMD, a healthcare
IT company that connects primary care providers to specialists for additional
guidance and opinions on medical cases and served as its chief medical officer.
He has served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s
Hospital and is a board-certified internal medicine doctor and nephrologist.
Ryan M. Confer, MS, has served as Genprex chief financial
officer since September 2016. Confer has more than 10 years of executive
experience in planning, launching, developing, and growing emerging technology
companies and has served in the chief operating and chief financial roles for
non-profit and for-profit entities since 2008. Confer has also served as an
international business development consultant for the University of Texas at
Austin’s IC2 Institute, where he focused on evaluating the commercialization
potential of nascent technologies in domestic and international markets
applicable to technology incubator programs associated with the University.
Confer holds a BS in finance and legal studies from Bloomsburg University of
Pennsylvania and an MS in technology commercialization from the McCombs School
of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Jan Stevens, RN, is vice president of Clinical Operations.
Stevens has nearly 20 years of comprehensive clinical operations experience in
the biopharma industry and a specialization in early-to-late stage oncology
companies. Stevens joined the company to help support the various clinical
development programs for Oncoprex.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Genprex.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates
relating to GNPX are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/GNPX
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