Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology, today announced that its lead product candidate, picoplatin, has been selected by an independent committee assembled by Windhover Information Inc. as one of the Top 10 most promising oncology projects in development that is available for partnering.

“We are pleased that the selection committee has recognized picoplatin as one of the most promising oncology programs for partnering,” said Ronald Martell, president and COO of Poniard. “We believe that picoplatin has attractive product attributes, including the strong potential for technical, clinical and regulatory success. We have exclusive worldwide rights for picoplatin.”

The selection committee was led by Marc Wortman, Ph.D., contributing writer to Windhover’s In Vivo and Start Up, and Ben Bonifant, vice president and head of the Business Development Practice at Campbell Alliance, a management consulting firm specializing in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. The committee evaluated hundreds of compounds currently in development for the treatment of cancer to select the 10 product candidates that represent the most attractive oncology opportunities for strategic partnering. Winners have met rigorous criteria, including large market potential with a diversity of indications, large unmet medical need, strong science, multi-level partnering opportunities (biotech and pharma), potential for new opportunities beyond initial indications, and corporate stability.

“The efficacy of platinum agents is well proven as a class,” said Mr. Bonifant. “Picoplatin capitalizes on that and offers a number of differentiated new advantages that could prove very attractive to oncologists in treating multiple types of solid tumors.”

“Selected companies have been screened using a strict set of judging criteria for the Top 10 award and represent what our committee considered the most attractive oncology opportunities the industry has to offer,” said Roger Longman, managing director of Windhover Information.

As a selected company, Poniard will present data on picoplatin at Windhover’s Therapeutic Area Partnerships conference on November 3-5 in Philadelphia. Windhover is a leading provider of business information products and services to senior executives in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.