Chemeq claims drug effective against cancer cells

Perth-based Chemeq has announced that its polymeric antimicrobial product was capable of killing gastrointestinal cancer cells.

The announcement came on the heels of demonstrations that the antimicrobial was active against gastric ulcer-causing bug Helicobacter pylori, known to be a major factor in the development of gastric cancers.

"This cancer testing is another part of our medium-term research program, designed to take Chemeq into global, human health-care markets," said Chemeq CEO Graham Melrose.

Melrose said the results had twofold significance for Chemeq, first showing that the technology provided investment security due to its broad range of applicability, and secondly as the new application was a cancer therapeutic that could be linked to the existing antimicrobial application.

The cancer study, which was performed at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, tested Chemeq's antimicrobial against a specific human cancer cell line (HT29) selected as a model for gastrointestinal cancer. The antimicrobial drug was "highly active" against the cancer cells in vitro.

"We need to do more research in order to fully gauge any commercial significance of the results, with respect to H. pylori infection and its pathway to ulceration and cancer," Melrose said.

Chemeq did not provide any information about the specificity of the drug toward cancer cells, and Chemeq company secretary Andrew Dwyer said that as far as he was aware, the drug had only been tested against the cancer cells, not against normal cells.

"It's really in the very early stages for us," he said.

He said that while the company's veterinary applications would be short-term products for the company, Chemeq was now looking at possible applications for medium to long-term development.