Ohr Pharma and Cold Spring Harbor Lab set up JV to develop trodusquemine

US biotech firm Ohr Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: OHRP) and not-for-profit cancer research center Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) plan to establish DepYmed Inc, a new joint venture to develop trodusquemine and related analogs.

The new JV will be a private entity, initially with equal ownership by Ohr and Cold Spring, which will seek funding and contribute to the R&D of trodusquemine and also newly-patented analogs. The goal is to take the program into the clinic and to demonstrate proof of concept. Various options to fund later stage clinical trials will be explored. The continued preclinical research will be conducted under the guidance of Nicholas Tonks at CSHL.

Trodusquemine has previously been investigated in Phase I and Ib studies for obesity and diabetes by the USA’s now defunct Genaera (The Pharma Letters passim), although Ohr has not indicated that this is a therapy area that the new JV will be investigation.