Abstract
Pfizer has struck a deal with Effector Therapeutics, a San Diego–based biotech start-up that’s developing small-molecule drugs to inhibit hyperactive translation in tumors. The big pharma firm will pay Effector $15 million up front to license a preclinical inhibitor of a protein called eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E). Effector stands to receive up to $492 million more in R&D funding, as well as development and sales milestones. Effector has three drug programs, all of them focused on targets that CEO Steve Worland calls effector proteins. These proteins, including eIF4E, receive signals from kinases and other signaling proteins, such as KRAS and PI3K, that are often implicated in cancer. eIF4E is the final step in a cellular pathway that includes PI3K. The so-called PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is frequently mutated in cancer. That cranks up eIF4E, which throws translation of certain cancer-promoting messenger RNAs into overdrive. Many drugs designed to block the PI3K
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