CellCeutix pharmaceutical company

Kevetrin, our lead product candidate, is a small molecule compound proprietary to the Company initially being developed to treat head and neck cancers. There is a potential for use of Kevetrin in multiple tumor types.  Kevetrin was discovered by the Company�s founder, Dr. Krishna Menon. Kevetrin has been studied extensively in in-vitro and in-vivo studies on over 5000 animals of various species.  Kevetrin method of action is through multiple biological pathways as an alkalating agent and LTB4 inhibitor with anti-angiogenic properties. Kevetrin has shown to be a potent anti-cancer agent against various cancer cell lines both in-vitro and in-vivo.  Since the compound works through MOA, �Multiple Mechanism of Action�, a single compound can attack the progress of cancer through multiple biological pathways, as well as may have a positive impact on other diseases.  These "Multiple Mechanism of Actions" have a better potential to attack the cancer cells through multiple pathways that affect the multiplication and formation of the cancer cells along with interruption of the formation of new blood vessels that supply vital nutrients to tumor cells and sustain the tumor growth

Because cancer is a pain in the neck

Few words have the immediately mind-numbing, life-altering effect that "cancer" does. Few diseases have cancer's indiscriminant, murderous streak. And few prospects are more daunting than trying to find an answer that works and safely. Most large pharmaceutical companies use high throughput screening, a scattershot approach that involves testing thousands of potential answers against a particular target, and rational drug design, which puts large teams of scientists and powerful computers at work on the problem.

Dr. Krishna Menon, one of the founders of Cellceutix and its Chief Scientific Officer, didn't have the luxury of being able to throw compounds at the cancer wall and to see which would stick, nor did he have teams of researchers to do the thinking for him. What he did have, however, was 35 years of governmental, academic, and pharmaceutical industry experience, including leading the development of two �BLOCKBUSTER� drugs. He also had access to a very valuable bull.

Prior to obtaining his degrees in medicine and pharmacology, Dr. Menon was trained as a veterinarian. The story behind Kevetrin dates back to this early experience, when he was working for the government of Jamaica as the chief veterinarian of a Parish. Dr. Menon watched as this prized bull was mistakenly sprayed with a cytotoxic agent to kill ticks. Unfortunately the animal was killed, but subsequent examination also showed that there were some cancers present under the bull's skin which had also been eliminated. This gave rise to the thought in Dr. Menon's mind that there had to be a way to develop cytotoxic agents that eliminated cancer cells while minimizing toxicity.

Fast forward 15 years� Dr. Menon was working with certain types of compounds called indoles, which appeared to have modest anti-cancer activity and to be relatively safe for humans. He thought this might be the road to a new compound that would have the same safety profile but greater activity against cancer cells. Unfortunately, because of other projects, he was unable to start out on this road for another 10 years.

In 2003, Dr. Menon finally had the opportunity to put his experience to work. This was the beginning of several years of trial and error and more trial and error and the frustration that often attends it, as Menon hunted for a new structure that would have better efficacy than indoles but would be no less safe. He was also acutely aware of the fact that a simple derivative of an existing compound would be unlikely to be considered very innovative. He needed something really novel.

After trying many structures. Dr. Menon finally hit on Kevetrin's. He immediately tried it in some in vitro screens and found it to be quite active. Originally, Dr. Menon focused on Kevetrin's activity as an AKT4 inhibitor. Since then, he's tested it in over 5000 laboratory animals and confirmed earlier results -- that Kevetrin [restate success of early screens]. Menon also discovered that the compound works along several pathways, not just a single one, including inhibition of tumor growth by inhibition of VEGF, a protein involved in vascular growth. Based on these 5,000-plus animal tests, Dr. Menon has determined that Kevetrin has special potential in treating head and neck cancers. He and the Cellceutix team are now working on completing the preclinical development work on Kevetrin..

In test tube and animal studies, Kevetrin reduced new growth of blood vessels while destroying the old blood vessels that supply the tumor tissue. It killed the tumor cells selectively with minimal toxicity commonly found in such compounds.  In animals, it is well tolerated, with the animals showing little weight reduction (less than 7.0%). It has shown activity against various types of cancers including Head and Neck Cancer, where it has shown 60% tumor reduction when administered alone and 80 to 85% tumor reduction when administered along with radiation, the standard treatment. In combination with other drugs also, it is well tolerated and showed potential for some synergistic effects.  We are now conducting additional studies to allow us to request permission from FDA to begin studies in humans.

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