APIM Therapeutics AS is a venture-backed biotechnology company and spin-out from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.
The company is based on the pioneering discoveries of Professor Marit Otterlei and colleagues, who identified a novel therapeutic intervention point involved in cellular stress responses and tumor resistance to therapy.
APIM Therapeutics is developing a proprietary platform of peptide therapeutics that target protein-protein interactions between Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) and proteins containing the APIM (AlkB homolog 2 PCNA-Interacting Motif) sequence. Research conducted by the company and academic collaborators has demonstrated that these PCNA-mediated interactions play a central role in DNA damage responses, cellular signaling, metabolism, apoptosis and other stress-response pathways that enable cancer cells to survive anti-cancer treatment. By selectively disrupting these interactions, APIM's compounds enhance the activity of multiple classes of anti-cancer therapies while maintaining a favorable safety profile.
ATX-101, the company's lead therapeutic candidate, is a first-in-class peptide targeting this novel mechanism. In preclinical studies, ATX-101 demonstrated single-agent activity in selected cancers and enhanced the efficacy of more than 25 anti-cancer agents across multiple tumor types. A first-in-human Phase I clinical study, conducted by APIM's Australian subsidiary Therapim Pty Ltd, confirmed a favorable safety profile and encouraging disease stabilization in patients with advanced solid tumors. The study results have been published in Oncogene, see Publications for more details.
Building on these results, ATX-101 has advanced into additional clinical studies:
1. Platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (Phase Ib)
ATX-101 was evaluated in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy. The completed study demonstrated a favorable safety profile together with a high objective response rate, supporting continued clinical development in this indication.
2. Liposarcoma and leiomyosarcoma (Phase II)
An investigator-initiated Phase II study at Columbia University Irving Medical Center evaluated ATX-101 as monotherapy in advanced sarcoma. The study provided encouraging clinical signals that, together with extensive preclinical combination data, support the ongoing development of ATX-101 in combination regimens for soft tissue sarcoma.
In parallel, APIM Therapeutics is advancing a pipeline of second-generation APIM-targeting compounds with improved pharmaceutical properties. Supported by a Research Council of Norway Innovation Project (IPN), the program aims to identify and develop next-generation clinical candidates for oncology.
For more information on our technology, please see Intervention Point, ATX-101 and Publications.