Pharma Blog Watch

Sunesis Targets CDKs (Xcovery Blog)
In response to an announcement this week by Sunesis Pharmaceuticals that it has started a Phase I clinical trial of its cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor in B-cell malignancies, Tim Gallagher writes, "The concern with targeting CDKs is that they are so fundamental to cell function that any therapy needs to be very, very well targeted, with above-average biological knowledge to compensate for off-target effects."

"Not to mention the fact that as nuclear proteins, delivery for a-CDK compounds is much more complex than say targeting RTKs," he continues. "Perhaps success by Sunesis … will increase interest in CDKs as targets."