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news.Ottawa-based biotech firm PharmaGap has successfully completed in vitro tests demonstrating the effectiveness of its drug compound PhG-alpha1 in non-small cell lung cancer.
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These results follow the previously announced effectiveness on Neuroblastoma cells and are the first of a current series of continuing in vitro tests of PhG-alpha1 targeting a range of cancers including breast, pancreatic, colon and bladder.
Testing in animals of PhG-alpha1 is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2005, leading to completion in 2006 of tests required to support phase I clinical trials.
PhG-alpha1 is a selective inhibitor of a protein kinase C isoform, the over-expression of which is directly implicated in many human cancers and in the onset of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
“The results of these tests confirm the effectiveness not only of PhG-alpha1 on non-small cell lung cancer cells but also on the proprietary drug development platform developed by PharmaGap,” commented chief scientific officer Dr Jenny Phipps.
“This platform has resulted in an initial compound that we expect, by successive minor modifications of the initial design, can be extended to treat a range of cancers and other disease conditions such as heart disorders and neurodegenerative diseases,” Phipps continued.