Pharmacyclics wins 2014 Society for Medicines Research Award for Drug Discovery

Dec 4 2014

Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC) today announced that it has won the prestigious 2014 Society for Medicines Research Award for Drug Discovery for its discovery of ibrutinib (IMBRUVICA^®). The award was presented by The Society of Medicines Research at its biennial award lecture in Kensington, London.

This independent research award recognizes outstanding development in the multidisciplinary field of drug discovery and is bestowed toward compounds which demonstrate a novel mechanism of action, a novel molecular interaction principle, a high degree of clinical benefit, and a significant ability to address an unmet medical need.

"We are pleased to be recognized with this honor for our scientific innovation and excellence toward the development of IMBRUVICA by such a prestigious body of scientists and researchers," said Betty Y. Chang, Ph.D., Vice President, Research at Pharmacyclics, who has worked since 2009 on studying the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) pathway and leads the research of the Pharmacyclics BTK inhibitors. "Our understanding of the biologic and pharmacologic sciences, combined with our operational expertise, have allowed us to bring forward one of the most promising new treatments for patients with B-cell malignancies, which continues to demonstrate strong potential for use in hematologic and other applications."

IMBRUVICA acts as a covalent inhibitor of a protein called BTK, a key signaling molecule in the B-cell receptor signaling complex that plays an important role in the survival and spread of malignant B cells. IMBRUVICA blocks signals that tell malignant B cells to multiply and spread uncontrollably.

"IMBRUVICA's success in treating patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma, coupled with Pharmacyclics' research leadership in bringing a new class of therapies to the market made it the top candidate for receiving our biennial scientific innovation and excellence award," said Richard Davenport, Ph.D., Media Relations Officer for The Society for Medicines Research.

Dr. Chang accepted the award on behalf of the company and provided the SMR Award Guest Lecture, entitled "Bench to Bedside: From PCI-32765 to ibrutinib to IMBRUVICA^®".

IMBRUVICA is jointly developed and commercialized by Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech, Inc.