ABOUT US

Research strategy:  To avoid the high costs and long lead times needed for target discovery, Galaxy selects a limited number of targets that have already been described in the scientific literature but have not been exploited for various reasons, such as difficulty in developing suitable mAbs.

Business strategy: Stay focused on research by outlicensing product candidates at the preclinical stage to larger pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies.

Brief company history.  Research activities began at the Company in 2002.  Galaxy has not sought venture capital funding, instead relying initially on funding from its founders, then on Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants, and now on a combination of SBIR grants and funding from its corporate partners.  As a result, the Company has grown slowly, and currently has 9 employees, 5 of them Ph.D.-level scientists and 2 of them at the research assistant level, with a high level of expertise in molecular and cell biology, immunology, and/or animal models.  Galaxy leases approximately 3000 sq. ft of laboratory space, which was fully built out and equipped according to the Company’s specifications.

The Company’s initial program was the development of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF), a growth factor believed to play an important role in the growth of many tumors and in angiogenesis.  This mAb potently inhibits the ability of HGF to stimulate growth of cells in vitro and to induce the first steps of angiogenesis.  No anti-HGF mAb with these properties had previously been described in the scientific literature.  Treatment with this mAb strongly inhibits the growth of cells from human glioma tumors, the most common type of brain cancer, as well as other tumor types, as subcutaneous or orthotopic xenografts in mice.  Based on these exciting results, in 2006 Galaxy licensed a humanized form of the mAb to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company for clinical development and potential marketing.  This was a transformative event for Galaxy Biotech, as it established a more stable financial basis for further research activities.  Takeda performed all preclinical and  manufacturing activities to file an IND for the humanized mAb and in 2009-2010 conducted a Phase I clinical trial in advanced non-hematologic malignancies. However, due to its strategic prioritization, Takeda returned all rights to HuL2G7 to Galaxy in July, 2012. Galaxy views this as an opportunity to enter another licensing arrangement for development of HuL2G7 with a committed pharmaceutical partner.

More recently, the Company has developed novel mAbs against Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2) and FGF Receptor 2 (FGFR2).  Both the growth factor and receptor play important roles in angiogenesis and the growth of many tumors, especially hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for FGF2 and gastric cancer for FGFR2.  The mAbs block all biological activities of their targets and strongly inhibit growth of HCC and gastric tumor xenografts respectively.  In September 2012, Galaxy licensed worldwide development and commercialization rights for its anti-FGF2 program to Hoffmann-La Roche.