A company repositioning drugs used to treat high blood pressure for use in improving chemotherapy has secured $3 million from investors to carry its lead candidate through Phase 1 trials.
Tau Therapeutics is repurposing the calcium channel blocker mibefradil for use alongside chemotherapy in patients with solid tumor cancers, starting with brain cancer.
After having its investigational new drug application accepted in February, the University of Virginia spinout has just closed a $3 million round of equity financing to support a Phase 1b study in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute?s Adult Brain Tumor Consortium. CEO Andy Krouse could not be reached immediately for additional information.
Tau is taking a bold move by hinging its lead product on mibefradil, which was formerly marketed by Roche for the treatment of hypertension. It was voluntarily withdrawn from the market in 1998 because of potentially harmful interactions with at least 25 other drugs that apparently didn?t appear in early trials. The use of other calcium-channel blockers has also been studied in association with increased cancer risk, although research has failed to substantiate those links.
The T-type calcium channel blocker is designed to the block the entry of calcium ? widely accepted by researchers to be a critical element for cell progression ? into cancer cells by the channel Cav3. The idea is that the drug is given orally to patients before chemotherapy, to halt the growth of cancer cells at a specific point as they enter the S phase ? the point at which they?re most vulnerable to chemotherapy. Then chemotherapy is administered, with the goal of destroying the large groups of accumulated cells.
The company says its Interlaced Therapy has overcome brain tumor resistance to temozolomide in animal models. The Phase 1 safety and dosing escalation trial should produce results this year, according to the company.
This new financing brings the Charlottesville, Virginia, company?s total to $10 million raised from private investors, on top of $12 million in non-dilutive funding.
According to the National Cancer Institute, there are about 135,000 Americans with a history of cancer of the brain or other nervous system, so TAU?s candidate may qualify for orphan drug status. Diffusion Pharmaceuticals and Cell Therapeutics both have orphan-designated drugs in mid-stage trials, and DNAtrix is working on a drug that it thinks causes brain tumor cells to self-destruct.
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