Medivation, Inc. (Amex: MDV) today announced that preclinical efficacy data on MDV3100, a novel small molecule the company is developing to treat hormone-refractory prostate cancer, will be presented later this month at the Prostate Cancer Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. A clinical trial will be started this year to test safety, dose levels and side effects on small groups of men with hormone refractory prostate cancer.

Charles Sawyers, M.D., chairman of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will present the data at 11 a.m. EST on Saturday, February 24, during the “Imaging and Novel Therapeutics” session. The symposium will take place at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Based on preclinical efficacy data to be presented by Dr. Sawyers, Medivation plans to begin a Phase 1-2a trial of MDV3100 in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer in the first half of this year.

MDV3100 has been designed to treat hormone-refractory prostate cancer by inhibiting the androgen receptor (AR) differently from currently approved AR antagonist drugs, which are ineffective in treating prostate cancers that have become hormone-refractory.

Dr. Charles Sawyers announced his discovery of that overexpression of the androgen receptor in prostate cancer cells is a key mechanism associated with prostate cancer hormone resistance in 2003 ( Researchers Identify Molecular Cause of Drug-Resistant Prostate Cancer). His colleague Dr. Michael Jung and team at UCLA went on to synthesize a series of organic small molecules that bind to the androgen receptor. Preclinical research suggests that MDV3100 may block both hormone-refractory and hormone-sensitive prostate cancer better than currently available therapies.

Medivation plans to begin a U.S. Phase 1-2a trial of MDV3100 in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer in the first half of 2007.