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The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Biotechnology Briefs

Posted on: Friday, 4 March 2005, 15:00 CST

Mar. 3--A TUCSON COMPANY BASED on University of Arizona drug research has launched a second round of clinical trials on a new medicine to treat pancreatic cancer -- one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Amplimed Inc. has begun enrolling patients for a "Phase I/II" clinical trial study of its drug candidate, Amplimexon, in combination with another chemotherapy drug.

The company also is wrapping up Phase I clinical trials begun in 2003 to determine safe dosages of Amplimexon as a stand-alone drug, Amplimed Chairman and CEO Robert Ashley said.

The new trials will test Amplimexon in combination with gemcitabine -- marketed under the brand name Gemzar by Eli Lilly & Co. -- to treat patients with previously untreated advanced pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer afflicts more than 30,000 patients in the United States each year, and fewer than 15 percent of patients with advanced stages of the disease survive a year or longer.

Amplimexon works by disrupting mitochondria -- the energy-producing factories of the cancer cell -- resulting in the leakage of toxic substances that kill cancer cells.

The drug's relatively low toxicity makes it a good candidate for use with other medications, Ashley said, noting that initial results of the Phase I study show that it is better tolerated by patients than first expected.

"The big advantage of our drug is it doesn't kill bone-marrow cells, or at least we don't have any evidence that it does," Ashley said.

Those findings raise hopes that Amplimexon and gem-citabine could be given in full doses, avoiding the cumulative toxicity of some drug combinations, said Dr. David Alberts, director of the Arizona Cancer Center at the UA and vice president of business development for Amplimed.

"We're excited about it, because we anticipate being able to give full doses of both drugs," Alberts said.

The Phase I study, conducted at the Arizona Cancer Center, the Virginia Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale and an affiliate of the John Wayne Cancer Center in Santa Monica, Calif., will be wrapped up later this year, Ashley said.

The new study is being conducted at five research sites, including the Anschutz Cancer Pavilion of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the University of Michigan Cancer Center. The Arizona Cancer Center is finalizing a contract to hold part of the trials here, Alberts added.

Because pancreatic cancer does not respond well to available treatments, Amplimexon likely will be eligible for "fast track" approval status from the Food and Drug Administration, Ashley said.

If all goes well in current and subsequent trials, Amplimed could receive FDA approval of Amplimexon as soon as 2008, Ashley said.

Amplimed has attracted about $15 million in venture capital funding since 2003.

INC. 500 TECH BOOTH: Hoping to get noticed by some of America's fastest-growing private companies, local boosters of high-tech economic development will sponsor a booth at the 23rd annual Inc. 500 Conference, which will be held March 17 through 20 at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive.

The Inc. 500 event is not only a "big-deal" conference for Tucson, but it's a major high-tech event as well, since many of the Inc. 500 companies provide high-tech products and services, said Bob Hagen, chairman of the Southern Arizona Tech Council.

For that reason, the Tech Council, an umbrella group for the area's high-tech industry cluster groups, plans to help sponsor the booth in partnership with the Arizona Department of Commerce and have representatives there to talk about high tech in Tucson, Hagen said.

Find more information on the conference at www.inc500conference.com UA's Bio5 to "top out" The last steel beam will be hoisted atop the future home of the UA's Bio5 Institute for Collaborative Bioresearch on Monday morning, officials say.

The so-called "topping out" ceremony will mark the completion of the structural skeleton of the $65.5 million Thomas W. Keating Building, which is to be finished in early 2006 at the corner of North Warren Avenue and East Helen Street. Following tradition, an evergreen tree will grace the building's structure, honoring the workers involved in its construction.

The event is being held on an invitation-only basis because of space limitations, a Bio5 spokesman said.

Send news about technology-based businesses to David Wichner, Business, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726; fax to 573-4144; or e-mail to dwichner@azstarnet.com.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

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Source: The Arizona Daily Star

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