Yaupon Therapeutics Begins Late Stage Clinical Trials
Editor's note: Yaupon Therapeutics is based on research by UK researchers Linda Dwoskin and Peter Crooks (pharmaceutical sciences).
Article Courtesy of the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, July 14, 2009 – Yaupon Therapeutics Inc., which opened an office at 1 Harbor Place nearly a year ago, has enrolled 260 patients into a late-stage trial for a skin-cancer drug, which it hopes to take to market next year.
CEO Robert Alonso said if the trial for Clearazide succeeds, his company will either market and sell the drug itself, or seek a partner to assist it in distribution.
"We are looking at both options," Alonso said. "If we market it ourselves, then we would hire a commercial staff here in New Hampshire, sales and marketing, about eight people total."
Clearazide is the first drug the company could take to market.
Alonso in 2002 founded the company, which specializes in licensing pharmaceutical research from academic institutions and taking prospective drugs into trial. The majority of the drugs the company develops relate to skin and central nervous system disorders.
Clearazide is a drug to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, a cancer of uncontrolled white blood cells in the skin. There are 16,000 to 20,000 newly diagnosed patients in the U.S. each year.
The trials are being held at "13 of the top cancer centers in the U.S." according to Yaupon.
Alonso said the disease is "a terrible burden on families worldwide." Yaupon set up an office in Portsmouth last August, and has said it will open up a small lab at Pease International Tradeport later this year, leading to the hiring of four doctorate holders. Alonso said the new lab "is still on hold pending new financing."
The company currently has five drug candidates in development or under trial.
About Yaupon Therapeutics
Yaupon Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company based on research by Linda Dwoskin and Peter Crooks (pharmaceutical sciences), develops small molecule pharmaceuticals licensed from academic laboratories. The researchers have had great success with lobeline, an alkaloid from American Indian tobacco, which in animal models blocks the desire for methamphetamine. In 2005, Yaupon was named Life Sciences Start-up Company of the Year at the Eastern Technology Council’s Annual Enterprise Awards ceremony.