US biotech firm Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD) is biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of drugs targeting tumor hypoxia, the low oxygen condition found in the microenvironments of most solid tumors as well as the bone marrows of some patients with hematologic malignancies.

This approach offers broad potential to treat a variety of cancers. By selectively targeting tumor cells, we are building a pipeline of drugs that hold promise to be more effective and less toxic to healthy tissues than conventional anticancer drugs.

Threshold’'s scientific platform based on hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAP) technology has potential for broad clinical applicability, offering therapies to treat most solid tumors and blood cancers. TH-302, a HAP discovered by scientists at Threshold, is currently the subject of multiple clinical studies.

The most advanced study is a pivotal Phase III clinical trial evaluating TH-302 in combination with doxorubicin in patients with soft tissue sarcoma, which was initiated in September 2011. A second Phase III study, which opened in December 2012, is designed to evaluate TH-302 in combination with gemcitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. In addition, multiple early-stage clinical trials are evaluating the safety and efficacy of TH-302 in a variety of solid and hematologic tumors either as monotherapy or in combination with other established anti-cancer therapies.

It also has compounds in the pipeline for Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Pancreatic Cancer, Melanoma, Advanced Leukemias and Multiple Myeloma.