ARIAD Announces FDA Clearance to Begin Clinical Development of AP32788

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARIA) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its review of the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for AP32788, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) designed as a targeted therapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with specific mutations in EGFR or HER2. ARIAD anticipates initiation of its Phase 1/2 clinical trial of AP32788 in patients with NSCLC in the second quarter of 2016.

AP32788 targets tumors driven by EGFR or HER2 kinases and was designed to achieve selective inhibition of exon 20 insertion mutations in these kinases. In preclinical studies, AP32788 potently inhibited EGFR mutations including exon 20 mutations, while remaining selective over native EGFR. It was also active against HER2 activating mutations including exon 20 mutations.

"ARIAD scientists designed AP32788 using our integrated drug discovery program to target cancer orphan subsets that are genetically defined but have no current targeted treatment options. This compound specifically addresses the needs of patients with NSCLC driven by EGFR exon 20 or HER2 mutations, who currently have a poor prognosis and limited treatment options," stated Timothy P. Clackson, president of research and development and chief scientific officer of ARIAD. "Data on the preclinical characterization of AP32788 have been submitted for presentation at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting in April."

EGFR mutations represent the largest known, targetable subset of NSCLC. While the most common types of EGFR mutation are addressed by approved TKI therapies, there are no targeted treatment options available for the approximately 4 to 9 percent of EGFR-mutated lung tumors with exon 20 insertion mutations.1 In addition, patients with HER2 mutations, mostly exon 20 insertion mutations, comprise approximately 2 percent of NSCLC patients2 and also have no current targeted treatment options. ARIAD estimates that there are approximately 6,000 patients in the United States living with EGFR exon 20 or HER2 point mutations, based on a broader data set of 175,000 patients with stage IIIb or IV NSCLC living in the U.S. in 2015, according to Kantar Health.

 

About AP32788

AP32788 is an investigational oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of activating mutations in EGFR and HER2. The molecule was designed to address the unmet need in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) driven by exon 20 insertion mutations in EGFR and HER2, and is ARIAD's fourth internally discovered oncology IND to be cleared for clinical development.

About ARIAD

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Lausanne, Switzerland, is an integrated global oncology company focused on transforming the lives of cancer patients with breakthrough medicines. ARIAD is working on new medicines to advance the treatment of various forms of chronic and acute leukemia, lung cancer and other difficult-to-treat cancers. ARIAD utilizes computational and structural approaches to design small-molecule drugs that overcome resistance to existing cancer medicines. For additional information, visit http://www.ariad.com or follow ARIAD on Twitter (@ARIADPharm).

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, each of which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Any statements contained herein which do not describe historical facts, including, but not limited to, statements concerning the intended therapeutic targets of AP32788, the start of our Phase 1/2 clinical trial, the presentation of pre-clinical data, and the potential addressable patient population for AP32788, are forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations and are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, outcome of events, timing and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our ability to successfully commercialize and generate profits from sales of Iclusig and our product candidates, if approved; competition from alternative therapies; our ability to meet anticipated clinical trial commencement, enrollment and completion dates and regulatory filing dates for our products and product candidates and to move new development candidates into the clinic; our ability to execute on our key corporate initiatives; regulatory developments and safety issues, including difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory and pricing and reimbursement approvals to market our products; our reliance on the performance of third-party manufacturers and specialty pharmacies for the supply and distribution of our products and product candidates; the occurrence of adverse safety events with our products and product candidates; the costs associated with our research, development, manufacturing, commercialization and other activities; the conduct, timing and results of preclinical and clinical studies of our products and product candidates, including that preclinical data and early-stage clinical data may not be replicated in later-stage clinical studies; the adequacy of our capital resources and the availability of additional funding; the ability to satisfy our contractual obligations, including under our leases, convertible debt and royalty financing agreements; patent protection and third-party intellectual property claims; litigation; our operations in foreign countries; risks related to key employees, markets, economic conditions, health care reform, prices and reimbursement rates; and other risk factors detailed in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Except as otherwise noted, these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after this press release. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.