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news.Biopharmaceutical company PTC Therapeutics has commenced a phase Ia clinical trial of PTC299, its anticancer product candidate, in healthy volunteers.
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The primary objective of this trial is to determine a dose range for the drug that is well tolerated, achieves pharmacologically active plasma concentrations and is appropriate for use in a subsequent phase Ib multiple-dose study.
The trial, being conducted in Belgium, is a single-site, placebo-controlled safety and pharmacokinetic study in healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55.
The company expects to complete this trial in the second quarter of 2006. If this trial is successful, PTC plans to initiate further clinical trials of PTC299 in solid tumor cancer patients.
PTC299 is a novel, orally administered small-molecule compound designed to inhibit the production of the protein vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, in tumors.
Because PTC299 inhibits VEGF production, its action occurs at a different point in the VEGF pathway than other therapies that target the binding of VEGF to its receptors on the surface of blood vessel cells.