Thursday, March 10, 2011
Adamis Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday it is seeking permission from federal regulators to begin testing APC-100, an experimental prostate cancer drug, on human patients for the first time.
The Del Mar company’s Investigational New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration seeks to recruit 30 men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer for a Phase 1 clinical trial. The testing will be conducted through the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center in Madison and Wayne State University’s Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.
Adamis shares rose 2 cents, or 15 percent, to 19 cents on Wednesday.
The oral drug, an organic molecule that was discovered by researchers at the Carbone center, is designed to block male hormones tied to prostate cancer in men who have become resistant to other hormone-blocking therapies.
In tests on mice with the disease, the drug worked 90 percent of the time in comparison to standard treatments that worked 55 percent of the time, the company said.
The drug previously received a Rapid Access to Preventive Intervention Development grant from the National Cancer Institute.
Adamis licensed APC-100 along with two other preclinical prostate cancer therapies in February 2010 from Colby Pharmaceutical, which had licensed the drug candidates from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Adamis also is working on a lower-cost, single-dose epinephrine injection to treat deadly allergic reactions.
A number of drug companies are working on new prostate cancer therapies in part because patients often develop resistance to existing medicines, said John McCamant, editor of the Medical Technology Stock Letter in Berkeley.
The niche also is attractive because prostate cancer cases, and the demand for more effective drugs, are expected to rise as the American population ages.
source: www.signonsandiego.com
