Numerate, Intellikine end cancer drug deal

Numerate Inc., a San Bruno company that develops drugs through a combination of computer science and statistics and traditional medicinal chemistry, said it and Intellikine Inc. have ended a cancer drug research collaboration.

The companies did not say whether La Jolla-based Intellikine will pursue development of any compounds coming out of the collaboration. Financial terms of the deal between the two private companies also were not disclosed.

The companies focused on finding compounds that target a signaling pathway - called P13K/mTOR - implicated in cancer cell growth. Numerate's work centered on identifying potent, selective and drug-like inhibitors of P13K alpha.

P13K, or phosphoinositide 3-kinases, have been found to influence various signaling pathways, like mTOR, and cell functions, such as cell growth. Blocking P13K also could play a role in treatments for cancer, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases or diabetes.

MTOR, or mammalian target of rapamycin, is a protein that regulates cell growth, cell proliferation, cell survival and transcription, among other factors.

In April, Presidio Pharmaceuticals Inc. of San Francisco ended a two-year collaboration with Numerate, saying it would not pursue development of compounds targeting the hepatitis C virus. It had used Numerate to discover compounds with the highest chance of activity against the virus.

Presidio said its decision was made for internal reasons.