The study results showed that animals receiving subcutaneous injections of Rituximab, incorporated with NexACT, demonstrated a 46% enhancement in bioavailability over Rituximab, alone.
Rituximab is a cancer medication that interferes with the development of cancer cells, slowing their growth and spread in the body. Delivered via intravenous infusion, Rituximab is the active drug in Rituxan, currently marketed by Genentech and Biogen Idec, and prescribed to treat Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
Bassam Damaj, president and CEO of NexMed, said: “The ability of the NexACT technology to successfully deliver Rituximab subcutaneously in a pre-clinical setting may open the door to improving the delivery of other therapeutic antibodies, which the company is in the process of studying. The use of human or humanised monoclonal antibodies, therapeutically, was a major breakthrough in the field of medicine.
“If the NexACT technology can ultimately be shown to lower the amount of antibody administered while improving the route of delivery and minimizing side effects, NexACT could potentially revolutioniSe the use of these drugs in the future. We look forward to advancing our work in this area and to the further studies that will be needed to validate these results in humans.”