A History of Innovative Thinking
Early Stage
Sunesis was founded in 1998 to develop new methods for identifying small molecule inhibitors of important biological targets and to use these methods to discover innovative new drugs. The period from 1998 through 2001 was spent creating and refining the Tethering platform, which enables us to discover lead molecules by identifying and combining fragments that bind to a site of interest on a target.
Expansion
From 2002 through mid-2003, Sunesis applied and validated this platform on diverse therapeutic targets in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Merck, and Biogen Idec, while starting to build its own downstream ability to advance molecules into the clinic. In 2003, Sunesis decided to focus its internal pipeline in oncology with a particular emphasis on identifying molecules that would block pathways that are required for tumor growth and survival.
Viability
Internal discovery programs targeting Raf and Aurora kinases were launched in 2003 and 2004, respectively. In parallel, Sunesis continued its forward integration by building a clinical development organization and in-licensing SNS-595 from Dainippon in 2003 and SNS-032 from Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2005. These molecules have now been joined in the clinic by the Aurora kinase inhibitor SNS-314.
Sunesis' science organization has continued to evolve, adding translational support for the clinical programs while maintaining a blend of internal and partner-sponsored discovery research.
