Year: 2015-16

Company: City of Hope

Liaison(s): Arthur Riggs David Horne James Figarola Jyotsana Singhal Jyotirmoy Kusari Sharad Singhal

City of Hope (COH) is a private, not-for-profit clinical
research center, hospital, and graduate medical school
that is best known for its cancer treatment center.
It has been designated as a Comprehensive Cancer
Center by the National Cancer Institute. COH’s
location in Duarte recently unveiled a new diabetes
and metabolic research institute, the Leslie and Susan
Gonda Diabetes and Genetic Research Center, with the
goal of expanding on diabetes research to help combat
the growing diabetes epidemic. COH is committed
to research in patient centered care and for the
advancement and tradition of exceptional care for all.
COH SR4 is a novel compound synthesized at City
of Hope that can target and treat drug-resistant
cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC),
hepatocarcinoma and melanoma, and metabolic
disorders, such as diabetes and obesity. The goal of
this Team Master’s Project is to conduct a market
assessment of opportunities for SR4. This will
include: review of the technical profile and IP status
of commercialized and pipeline therapies; disease
prevalence and patient profile; practitioner preferences
and trends in standard of care; growth in NSCLC,
melanoma, obesity and diabetes; potential partners;
reimbursement and more.
Given the preclinical data about SR4 in vitro and
in vivo models, the team was tasked to explore
requirements for filing an investigational new
drug application (IND) with the Federal Drug
Administration (FDA) for SR4. Moreover, in order
to choose the best indication for the IND, the team
performed a detailed market assessment of possible
indications provided by COH, namely non-small
cell lung cancer, melanoma, diabetes, and obesity. As
such, the team designed a single dose toxicity study
and consulted those regarding future requirements.
The team also performed market analyses of obesity,
melanoma, diabetes, and NSCLC markets and
assessed IP issues regarding SR4. Future goals include
examination of these intellectual property issues, an
orphan drug recommendation for melanoma, and
future clinical trial design.