Actuate Therapeutics

Actuate Therapeutics is a biotechnology company aimed at providing patients with hard-to-treat cancers the opportunity to prolong life and improve quality of life through a first-in-class drug that has the potential to slow, halt, or shrink tumors with minimal side effects. Actuate Therapeutics is developing its lead drug elraglusib (formerly known as 9-ING-41), a small molecule designed to enter cancer cells and block the function of the GSK-3ß enzyme (a novel GSK-3 inhibitor). GSK-3ß is a key regulator of complex biological signaling cascades, including those mediated by oncogenes, which lead to tumor cell survival, growth, migration, and invasion. Elraglusib also acts as a mediator of anti-tumor immunity by inhibiting multiple immune checkpoints and modulating immune cell functions. Actuate Therapeutics believes that blocking GSK-3ß signaling will ultimately result in cancer cell death and modulation of anti-tumor immunity. Actuate has exclusively licensed a patent portfolio of GSK-3 inhibitors that were co-developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Northwestern University (NU). Elraglusib (9-ING-41) is currently undergoing a randomized Phase II clinical trial in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, which is Actuate's most advanced clinical indication to date. Based on data obtained from completed or ongoing Phase I/II clinical trials in pediatric and adult patients with advanced, refractory cancers, elraglusib provides the company with broad opportunities to potentially initiate and advance multiple drug development programs around this leading asset.