"It brings with it a killer, a toxin. It's a way of targeting a toxin to the cancer tumor cells,'' said Dr. Steve Gately, president and chief scientific advisor at TD2. "Our goal would be to find that set of patients who are highly responsive; who have the greatest benefit. We'd like to accelerate the government approval for that agent.''

The clinical trials could show that EP-100 is effective with certain types of cancer, Dr. Gately said. "Perhaps there is a genetic context under which certain patients may be more responsive. We want to find those patients.''

Dr. Hector Alila, president of Esperance, said EP-100 has the potential to offer an improved safety and effectiveness over existing therapies, such as radiation or chemotherapy.

"Preclinical studies of EP-100 demonstrated this candidate's efficacy across multiple indications in oncology, including aggressive cancers known to be resistant to the current standards of care and, importantly, studies of EP-100's mechanism-of-action support that it targets and selectively kills cancer cells without harming normal cells," Dr. Alila said.

Source: Scottsdale Healthcare