Release issued 2nd March 2009

Astex Therapeutics Limited, the leading fragment based drug discovery company, today announced that it has received an award of up to $1 million from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (“MMRF”) as part of its “Biotech Investment Award” research award program to support the clinical development of the Company’s proprietary drug compound, AT7519, in patients with multiple myeloma.

AT7519, a cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, has shown significant anti-tumour activity in pre-clinical models of multiple myeloma.  The MMRF funding will be used to support a Phase II clinical study of AT7519 in multiple myeloma patients.  Astex has already completed one Phase I trial with AT7519 in patients with solid tumours and the compound is also being tested using an alternative dosing schedule in a second Phase I trial in patients with solid tumours. 

“As the world’s number-one private funder of multiple myeloma research we are delighted that the MMRF has chosen to support the clinical development of our novel compound, AT7519, underlining the quality of drug candidates generated by Astex”, said Harren Jhoti, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Astex.  “The MMRF Biotech Investment Award allows us to trial our proprietary CDK inhibitor as a potential new treatment for patients with multiple myeloma”

“Despite significant treatment advances, multiple myeloma remains a fatal disease.  With this Biotech Investment Award to Astex, the MMRF has taken an additional step to bring next-generation therapeutics to patients as quickly as possible” said Louise M. Perkins, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of the MMRF.

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Astex Therapeutics

Astex is a UK-based biotechnology company that discovers and develops novel small molecule therapeutics.  Using its pioneering fragment-based drug discovery platform Pyramid™, Astex has built a pipeline of five molecularly-targeted oncology drugs, of which three are currently being tested in clinical trials and two are in pre-clinical development.

In addition to its proprietary research programmes, Astex’s productivity in lead discovery has been endorsed through numerous partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Bayer-Schering, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Johnson and Johnson.

For further information on Astex please visit the Company’s website at www.astex-therapeutics.com  

Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) was established in 1998 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization by twin sisters Karen Andrews and Kathy Giusti, soon after Kathy's diagnosis with multiple myeloma.  The mission of the MMRF is to relentlessly pursue innovative means that accelerate the development of next-generation multiple myeloma treatments to extend the lives of patients and lead to a cure.  As the world's number-one private funder of multiple myeloma research, the MMRF has raised over $110 million since its inception to fund nearly 100 laboratories worldwide.  An outstanding 93% of funds raised go toward research and related programming.  The MMRF has supported 40 new compounds and approaches in clinical trials and pre-clinical studies and has facilitated 17 clinical trials through its sister organization, the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC).

For more information about the MMRF, please visit www.themmrf.org.

(26th May 2009) Astex reports positive data from its Phase I study of AT9283 at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2009

(24th March 2009) Astex Awarded £2 Million from Wellcome Trust for Pioneering HCV Research

(11th February 2009) Astex and Cancer Research UK Collaborate on Clinical Studies of AT9283 in Childhood Cancers

(1st December 2008) Astex Presents Updates on AT7519 and AT9283 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Conference

(9th June 2008) Astex Announces New Drug Discovery Alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V.