AustCancer acquires licence to pancreatic cancer drug

Australian Cancer Technology (ASX:ACU) has acquired the North American licence for a developmental pancreatic cancer drug from German company RESprotect.

As part of the agreement, AustCancer will acquire 10 per cent of the capital of RESprotect.

The drug, RP101, is targeted at preventing cells from developing a resistance to chemotherapy.

"The results from the Phase I/II pilot trials [of RP101] are extremely promising and show particular efficacy in pancreatic cancer patients," said RESprotect founder geneticist Prof Dr Rudolf Fahrig, a major shareholder in the company. "This is probably due to the fact that when tested in vitro with tumour cells, RP101 has a major effect in down-regulating the oncogene STAT3, and the DNA-repair gene APEX, which are over-expressed in pancreatic carcinoma."

AustCancer will fund a repeat Phase I/II dose finding study, expected to begin in Germany in 6-8 weeks and run for six months. The trial will be run at two centres with 22 pancreatic patients. Following this trial, AustCancer will commence a pivotal Phase IIb/III trial in the US in 2005. The company has already commenced regulatory due diligence in the US and expects to lodge an Investigative New Drug application with the FDA next year.

"We believe that the drug may offer new or significant improvements for pancreatic cancer by satisfying unmet medical needs, and therefore might qualify for Orphan Drug status," said AustCancer's Chairman, Dr Roger Aston.

The intellectual property for RP101 came from research conducted at the Fraunhofer Society of Munich.