BioLineRx in deal with US university for BL-4030 cancer agent

BioLineRx, an Israeli drug development company, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, have entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement for the research, development and commercialization of BL-4030, a small-molecule agent for the treatment of cancer. Financial terms of the accord were not disclosed. By activating a cell-death specific protein, BL-4030 induces apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells. With this partnership, BioLineRx says it " further strengthens its promising therapeutic pipeline to include 15 compounds."

"BL-4030 has the potential to be an important targeted therapy for certain cancers," commented Morris Laster, chief executive of BioLineRx. "The in-license of BL-4030 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also marks our first collaboration with a US university. We feel this is an additional validation of the drug development platform we have created, and look forward to expanding our ties with the research community in the US through in-licensing additional promising candidates," he added.