On November 16, 2015 Starpharma (ASX: SPL, OTCQX: SPHRY) reported that treatment with its novel antibody-targeted DEP Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo! Starpharma’s antibody-targeted DEP conjugate (using Herceptin as the targeting group) significantly outperformed both Roche’s Kadcyla (T-DM1), a Herceptin antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), and the monoclonal antibody Herceptin (Trastuzumab)
conjugate resulted in complete tumour regression and 100% survival in an ovarian cancer model (Press release, Starpharma, NOV 16, 2015, View Source [SID:1234508250]).
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itself in the pre-clinical ovarian cancer model.
The targeted DEP treated group showed vastly improved anticancer effectiveness and survival compared to both Kadcyla and Herceptin. The targeted DEP treated group exhibited complete regression after treatment which has been maintained for the duration of the experiment (60 days, experiment ongoing). In contrast, in the Kadcyla group, only tumour stasis was observed during treatment with a maximum inhibition of 32% at day 12, however soon after completion of dosing tumour regrowth occurred.
Survival statistics for the targeted DEP conjugate were also impressive with 100% of the targeted DEP treated group surviving at 60 days (study still ongoing), whereas by day 50, none of the Kadcyla treated group were alive. Survival results are presented
below.
"We are very excited by these latest results for our targeted DEP conjugates and feedback from commercial parties on this new data has been very positive indeed. Discussions are now underway with a number of pharmaceutical companies in relation
to this targeted DEP conjugate and the application of Starpharma’s targeted DEP platform to their proprietary drugs."
The top 3 antibody based treatments in cancer (Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin) had total sales in excess of $US20B in 2014. Targeted therapies for cancer such as the ADCs Kadcyla and Adcetris had combined sales in excess of US$1billion in 2014, with
Kadcyla sales growing at 144% versus the previous year. The market for ADCs is expected to grow to US$9 billion annually by 2023.1
Targeted DEP Conjugates
Starpharma’s proprietary targeted DEP conjugate in this experiment consist of a dendrimer scaffold, a targeting group (in this case the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin)) and a "payload" of anticancer drug.
Targeted DEP conjugates have a number of important advantages over standard ADCs including higher drug loading and manufacturing advantages.