Starpharma's docetaxel formula tackles neutropenia

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) said preclinical trials of chemotherapy formulation dendrimer-docetaxel suggest that the product could eliminate the risk of life-threatening bone marrow toxicity neutropenia.

Rats treated with the dendrimer formulation of chemotherapeutic docetaxel (Taxotere) exhibited a lack of neutropenia throughout the study. By contrast, animals treated with Taxotere showed severe neutropenia.

Severe neutropenia occurs in more than 75% of patients treated with docetaxel and is the main dose-limiting side effect of the chemotherapy.

It is characterised by low numbers of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, and can cause a high risk of serious infection.

The finding builds on prior preclinical research showing that Starpharma’s dendrimer formulation of oxaliplatin, another popular chemotherapy, can also significantly reduce the risk of neutropenia.

Starpharma CEO Dr Jackie Fairley said this discovery is important. “We have now shown that Starpharma’s dendrimer technology can prevent neutropenia as observed in independent studies of two leading cancer drugs, docetaxel and oxaliplatin,” she said.

“These findings suggest that the ability to avoid these important toxicities is likely to be a feature of the dendrimer platform and, therefore, could also be anticipated with other cancer drugs.”

During preclinical development, dendrimer-docetaxel has also been shown to be water soluble, eliminating the need to use Polysorbate 80, a detergent used in most docetaxel formulations that can cause serious toxicity anaphylaxis. It has also shown signs of being more effective than generic docetaxel.

Dendrimer-docetaxel is due to enter clinical trials this year.

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) shares were trading 1.12% higher at $0.90 as of around 1 pm on Friday.