Two spin-outs are currently trialing drugs to treat various diseases, with a third hoping to run a trial soon.
Two spin-outs from Arizona University have entered into human trials to test drugs that could cure various forms of cancer and other diseases.
NuvOx has entered its Phase 1b trial of a drug that could help patients with glioblastoma multiforme. The disease is the most common and most aggressive kind of brain tumour affecting humans – yet the disease itself is also incredibly rare. Median survival with currently available treatment is 15 months. The drug candidate, NVX-108, delivers more oxygen to the oxygen-starved brain and helps increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy. NuVox’s core technology is patented in the US.
Cancer Prevention Pharmaceuticals has been running a three-year, phase 3 clinical trial in collaboration with the US National Cancer Institute and an institute-supported clinical trials group. The spin-out is hoping that its drug candidate will be able to prevent colon cancer recurrence and polyps. It has also launched a clinical trial in Europe, which began in 2013. The company hopes it will be able to also use its technology to help neuroblastoma patients, a cancer of nerve cells that affects children.
Valley Fever Solutions is hoping to treat valley fever, a fungal lung disease that is endemic in the state, as well as in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and northern Mexico. Nikkomycin Z has so far indicated less side effects than current anti-fungal therapies. The underlying technology was originally developed at Bayer in the 1990s but then acquired by Arizona University. The company has secured a $1.7m grant from the US National Institutes of Health for a phase 2 trial, and is looking for further investments to close the funding round.
Raymond Woosley, founding president of the Arizona Centre for Education and Research on Therapeutics, commented that smaller research centres face more difficulties taking drug candidates to approval. He said: “It costs a ton of money, and it is a high-risk endeavour. To me, it kind of reflects the cowboy spirit out here.”
