Welcome to Aragon Pharmaceuticals
Aragon Pharmaceuticals is developing small-molecule drugs for the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers, such as prostate and breast cancer.
Most prostate and breast cancers depend on androgen and estrogen, respectively, for growth, and are therefore treated with drugs that block the synthesis or action of those hormones. Most tumors initially respond to these antihormonal drugs, but many tumors become resistant to the drugs over time. Importantly, recent advances by Aragon Founders and others in understanding the process of acquired resistance to antihormonal therapy indicate that these tumors remain critically dependent on the androgen receptor (AR) and the estrogen receptor (ER) for growth and metastatic progression. New insights suggest that these same hormone receptor pathways may play a role in the growth of other cancers as well, such as ovarian and uterine cancers.
Aragon Pharmaceuticals was founded on the vision of exploiting these recent findings on AR and ER, two of the most thoroughly validated oncology drug targets. The company's goal is to discover and develop next-generation agents to treat progressive, relapsed, and refractory prostate and breast cancer. In addition, with their unique mechanism of action, these novel agents are predicted to have robust activity in early stage disease, supplanting existing therapies. This class of agents also has potential to treat other endocrine-driven cancers as well.
Aragon has established a highly-focused drug discovery platform built on the company's deep knowledge of nuclear receptors—especially AR and ER—and the receptors' roles in driving cancer growth.
The company's lead compound, ARN-509, is currently undergoing a Phase I/II clinical trial in patients who have castration-resistant prostate cancer. ARN-509 blocks AR nuclear translocation and DNA binding, thereby modulating the expression of genes critical to tumor growth. This novel mechanism of action coupled with excellent pharmaceutical properties and a high therapeutic index gives ARN-509 the potential to be a best-in-its-class treatment for prostate cancer.
In addition to ARN-509, Aragon is designing and developing selective androgen receptor degraders (SARDs) and selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs). Aragon's degrader class of small-molecule oral therapeutics not only blocks hormone action at the receptor, but also induces conformational changes resulting in receptor degradation. Dual-acting SARDs and SERDs offer an innovative therapeutic strategy after other antihormonal therapies fail. In addition, they have tremendous potential as a front-line therapy that is less prone to developing resistance.
Aragon was founded in 2009 and is based in San Diego.