Cyclacel

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Type	Public (NASDAQ: CYCC)
Industry	Biotechnology
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Dundee, Scotland
Key people	Spiro Rombotis, CEO David P. Lane, Founder
Products	Seliciclib (CYC202), Sapacitabine (CYC682), Aurora kinase inhibitors (CYC116)
Revenue	$29.416 million USD (Q3 2006)
Net income	$8.127 million USD (Q3 2006)
Employees	65 (2006)
Website	http://www.cyclacel.com

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CYCC, is a biotechnology firm based in Dundee, Scotland and Short Hills, New Jersey developing cancer drugs and treatments. Cyclacel was founded in 1996 by Professor David Lane, Merlin Ventures and Cancer Research Campaign Technology with the University of Dundee and the University of Glasgow.

Major shareholders include Magnetar Financial, Deerfield Management, Baker Brothers Advisors and the Federated Kaufmann Fund.

The firm is dedicated to developing "mechanism-targeted drugs" to help in the fight of cancer, and other serious illness, such as diabetes and HIV.

Beginnings

Cyclacel is a spin-off company, founded by Professor Sir David Lane of University of Dundee to capitalise on his discovery of the P53 gene, also known as the "tumour-suppressor" gene. Professor Lane later left Cyclacel to take up a 2 year sabbatical post as executive director of Singapore’s A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.

In 1997, Cyclacel started work in a small Dundee lab. After an investment of £4million from Brian Souter and Anne Gloag the company acquired larger, custom-built premises in 2000. The £2.7million facility was officially opened by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair on 22 February 2002.

Expansion

After becoming the first European spin-out company to raise over $100 million in private equity^[1], the company had to pull out of a stock market listing in July 2004^[2]. Cyclacel completed a reverse merger with Xcyte Therapies in December 2005 to acquire Nasdaq listing^[3]. This allowed Cyclacel to take advantage of its adopted Nasdaq listing by raising an additional $45 million in April 2006 through a private placement of stock and warrants.

Cancer Treatment

The company is developing new and innovative therapeutic treatments for cancer and other serious diseases. By gaining insights into cell cycle control biology and rational drug design chemistry, it is hoped new effective drugs can be discovered.

Seliciclib

Seliciclib is Cyclacel's main drug project, and this drug is currently in Phase IIb clinical trials as a third line treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Seliciclib is a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor that is believed to cause cancer cell death. One of the few oral treatments for cancer, the drug is convenient, cost effective and potentially effective.

Sapacitabine

This is an orally available nucleoside analogue, which is currently undergoing Phase II trials in patients with advanced leukemias and lymphomas.

Staff

• Spiro Rombotis, President and Chief Executive Officer.
• Paul McBarron, Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Operating Officer.
• Judy Chiao, Vice President, Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs.
• Gill Christie, Director, Human Resources.
• Susan Davis, Associate Director, Business Development.
• Professor David Glover, FRSE, Chief Scientist, Polgen.

Development.

See also

• Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. ^ "Cyclacel completes $39 million private placement". BioPortfolio. 2004. Archived from the original on 16 April 2004. http://web.archive.org/web/20040416181320/http://www.bioportfolio.com/news/Cyclacel_1.htm. Retrieved 29 January 2004. 
2. ^ "Cyclacel gets a £5m bail-out". The Scotsman. 2004. http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2064962005. Retrieved 10 October 2004. 
3. ^ "Xcyte sells off assets". Puget Sound Business Journal. 15 December 2005. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/12/12/daily28.html?f=et80&hbx=e_du. Retrieved 15 December 2005.