Good results boost AustCancer breast cancer program

WA-headquartered Australian Cancer Technology (ASX: ACU) has accelerated its breast cancer therapeutic program after reporting good first-stage results.

More resources and more funding will now be put into the project, a collaboration between AustCancer and UK company BioFocus.

"We expect to do lead optimisation and patent compounds over the next 12 months," said COO Dr Julia Hill. She said that the company hoped to be able to move towards clinical trials within 18-24 months.

The project uses BioFocus's Retroviral Display (RVD) technology to identify lead compounds that down-regulate or otherwise modulate the erbB-2 receptor in breast cancer cells. This receptor is the target of successful breast cancer drug Herceptin, which is worth over $1 billion per year to California-based biotech Genentech.

AustCancer hopes to find a small molecule drug that can replace antibody-based Herceptin, which is expensive to produce.

Earlier this year, the company announced that a family of compounds had been identified with activity against the erbB-2 receptor.

"Our 50:50 RVD joint venture with BioFocus has now identified a family of compounds that down-regulate key receptors on the surface of breast cancer cells. These receptors are involved in the same biochemical pathway that the drug Herceptin blocks to halt the advance of breast cancer," Hill said.

Hill said the project was commercially attractive, because it targeted a proven drug mechanism with a substantial market.

The collaboration with BioFocus on this project has been going for 12 months, and Hill said that all milestones had been met ahead of schedule. AustCancer has a second collaboration with the BioFocus looking at inhibitors for Chk1 kinase.

BioFocus owns more than 3 per cent of AustCancer, and further investment is expected to happen later this year.