Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals Inc. is saying little about its lead drug candidate, CPI-613, which entered its first Phase I/II human clinical trial in late 2008, but the company and its backers believe they are developing a potentially game-changing class of new molecules and technology for delivering them. Its Altered Energy Metabolism Directed platform specifically utilizes the difference in cancer cells’ metabolic appetite to facilitate selective delivery of a novel small molecule (CPI-613 being the first example) into the cells’ mitochondria. Similarly the company’s Emulsiphan leverages those same metabolic differences to deliver drugs specifically to the cancer cell cytoplasm.