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As previously announced on March 5, 2008, Arno, Laurier and LaurierAcquisition, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Laurier, entered into a mergeragreement pursuant to which Laurier Acquisition would merge into Arno, withArno becoming the wholly-owned subsidiary of Laurier. The merger was completedon June 3, 2008. Immediately thereafter, Arno merged with and into Laurier,and Laurier changed its name to Arno Therapeutics, Inc. In addition, upon thecompletion of the merger, the officers and directors of the former ArnoTherapeutics became the officers and directors of the resulting company.
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Prior to the merger, Arno completed an $18 million private financingthrough the sale of shares of common stock to an investor group comprised ofselect institutional and qualified investors. Riverbank Capital Securities,Inc., a FINRA member broker dealer, acted as placement agent in connectionwith the financing.
"We are extremely excited about the successful financing and merger, whichleaves us in a strong position to advance our pipeline as rapidly aspossible," said Scott Fields, M.D., President and Chief Medical Officer ofArno. "We look forward to moving into Phase II clinical studies with our leadproduct, AR-67, and to completing IND enabling pre-clinical work for AR-12 andAR-42."
The proceeds from the financing will be used primarily to fund furtherdevelopment of Arno's oncology pipeline that includes its lead compound, AR-67, which is currently being investigated in a Phase I clinical study, as wellas AR-12 and AR-42, two novel, preclinical, cancer therapies.
AR-67 is a novel, third-generation camptothecin analogue that hasdemonstrated high potency in preclinical studies and improved pharmacokineticproperties, as demonstrated by the increased stability of the active lactoneform of AR-67 in blood samples. Preclinical studies and preliminary Phase Idata confirm that AR-67 maintains a greater proportion of drug in the activelactone form as compared with approved second-generation products, acharacteristic that Arno believes may translate to superior clinical activity.Moreover, the potential for oral administration may increase patientconvenience. A Phase I clinical study of AR-67 in patients with advancedsolid tumors is currently ongoing. Multiple Phase II studies are planned forinitiation in 2008 in a variety of cancers, including glioblastoma multiforme(GBM), a highly aggressive form of brain cancer.
AR-12 is a PDK-1 inhibitor that targets the Akt pathway while alsopossessing activity in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and otherpathways targeting apoptosis. Preclinical data have demonstrated that AR-12has activity in a wide range of tumor types and shows promising activity incombination with several widely used anti-cancer agents including Avastin(R),Herceptin(R), Gleevec(R), Tarceva(R) and tamoxifen.
AR-42 is a targeted inhibitor of the Pan-DAC and Akt pathways. Inpreclinical studies, AR-42 has demonstrated greater potency and a competitiveprofile in tumors when compared with vorinostat (SAHA), the leading marketedhistone deacetylase inhibitor. Arno plans to initiate Phase I studies of AR-42and AR-12 in early 2009.
Arie Belldegrun, M.D., FACS, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arnoadded, "This is an important milestone for our company. Attracting sufficientcapital was a key objective for us this year. We are extremely pleased tohave assembled such a strong group of institutional investors, which is atestamen
