SAN DIEGO, CA, USA I July 29, 2015 I Ignyta, Inc. (Nasdaq: RXDX), a precision oncology biotechnology company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug application (IND) for Ignyta’s new chemical entity RXDX-107, a next-generation alkyl ester of bendamustine encapsulated in human serum albumin (HSA) to form nanoparticles.

Under this IND, the company intends to initiate a new Phase 1/1b, multicenter, open-label clinical trial of RXDX-107 in adult patients. This dose-escalation study is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D), tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary clinical activity of RXDX-107 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.

“The FDA’s determination that our planned Phase 1/1b clinical trial of RXDX-107 may proceed under our IND is a significant milestone for Ignyta,” said Jonathan Lim, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Ignyta. “Although we just recently acquired rights to RXDX-107 from Teva in March, our team has worked hard in the meantime to fully integrate this product candidate into our business and prepare and submit the IND just a quarter later. This IND represents Ignyta’s second successful IND filing with the FDA, and RXDX-107 will be our third product candidate in the clinic. We look forward to beginning to treat cancer patients with this product candidate.”

About RXDX-107

RXDX-107 is new chemical entity comprising an alkyl ester of bendamustine encapsulated in HSA to form nanoparticles. RXDX-107 is designed to have increased half-life and improved tissue biodistribution by leveraging the affinity characteristics of albumin for tumor cells, while retaining the unique cytotoxic properties of bendamustine. These improvements may provide meaningful benefit to patients with solid tumors. In preclinical pharmacology studies, RXDX-107 has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in multiple in vitro and in vivo studies, including cell line-based and patient-derived xenograft models of solid tumors.

About Ignyta, Inc.

Ignyta, Inc., located in San Diego, California, is a precision oncology biotechnology company pursuing an integrated therapeutic (Rx) and companion diagnostic (Dx) strategy for treating cancer patients. The company’s goal with this Rx/Dx approach is to discover, develop and commercialize new drugs that target activated cancer genes and pathways for the customized treatment of cancer, as well as novel chemotherapeutics that can potentially provide additional benefit to cancer patients. It aims to achieve this goal by pairing its product candidates with biomarker-based companion diagnostics that are designed to identify, at the molecular level, the patients who are most likely to benefit from the precisely targeted drugs the company develops. For more information, please visit: www.ignyta.com.

SOURCE: Ignyta