Spun out of Penn State College of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology, Apogee Biotechnology Corporation is developing chemical compounds designed to inhibit the activities of sphingosine kinase, an enzyme known to drive cell proliferation and inflammation. Sphingosine kinase is overactive in several diseases such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and atherosclerosis.develops compounds for the treatment of cancer. The lead compound developed by Apogee was identified in 2006 - first-in-class non-lipid inhibitor of sphingosine kinase.The firm's primary technology platform, ABC294640, is an oral small molecule that includes inhibitors of sphingosine kinase for the treatment of solid tumors and various chronic inflammatory diseases, as well as in indications of damaging acute inflammation. In 2015, ABC294640 was licensed to RedHill BioPharma. In addition, the company's focus is on technologies to treat solid tumor cancers that have been validated in preclinical animal tumor models including renal cell carcinoma, breast, brain, pancreatic, myeloma and colon cancers.
