Anti-cancer drug to earn ANU millions
By Julian Lee The ANU could earn millions of dollars in royalties from a promising new anti-cancer drug - PI-88. ANUTECH, the commercial arm of the ANU, has negotiated a deal with Progen, an Australian biotechnology company, for ongoing research and development on PI-88 and other drugs developed in the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR). PI-88 has been designed to treat a range of solid tumours, the most common of which occur in breast, prostate, lung and colon tissues. Pre-clinical tests on animals showed that PI-88 could successfully reduce the growth of animal and human-derived tumours. This resulted in a 70 per cent increase in the share value for Progen over the past six weeks, in a market the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare values at $1.9 billion annually in Australia alone. In developing this new anti-cancer drug, Professor Christopher Parish of the JCSMR took a novel approach to killing tumours based on preventing the development of blood vessels (angiogenesis) rather than combating cancer cells directly. "For a tumour to survive, it has to have a blood supply, and any solid tumour can't go beyond about half a millimetre in diameter without inducing new blood vessels," Prof Parish said. "If you can stop the formation of new blood vessels, then you have a very potent anti-tumour agent." PI-88 also prevents cancer cells from spreading to other sites in the body. "It does this by inhibiting an enzyme called "heparanase" which creates holes in the walls of blood vessels allowing the cancer cells to migrate," he said. The key advantage of this drug is that it has very low toxicity when compared to other anti-cancer drugs, Prof Parish said. He said it is safe because angiogenesis does not take place in adults (unless they have had a major injury or surgery) or in children, as most blood vessel growth occurs before birth. Prof Parish said syndicated research and development funding over two years was crucial to developing PI-88 to a point where Progen could see that it could be commercialised. Subsequently, Progen has provided $5 million over five years to develop the drug to the second of three phases. The final phase will require another $50 million, which Progen may finance through an alliance with a large pharmaceutical company. Many factors other than money can prevent a drug reaching the market, however Prof Parish feels confident that if PI-88 does not make it, one of the other drugs that he is developing will.