Pleco Therapeutics partners with Hyloris to develop novel cancer agent
pharmafile | November 10, 2021 | News story | Research and Development |
Specialty biopharma company, Pleco Therapeutics, have announced the beginning of a strategic collaboration with Hyloris Pharmaceuticals, to develop and commercialise a novel Plecoida Agent to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).
The Plecoid FDC product is an innovative, clinical-stage candidate drug that combines chelating agents with different characteristics. Exploratory clinical studies are currently being conducted in AML patients, to evaluate the metal rebalancing effect of chelating agents administered concomitantly with chemotherapy.
Pleco Therapeutics is focused on developing novel combination chelating agents to detoxify the cancer micro-environment. Hyloris is a specialty biopharma company committed to addressing unmet medical needs through reinventing existing medications.
Under the terms of the agreement, worth up to €8.7 billion, Hyloris will provide €1 million in several instalments over time. Hyloris now has global exclusive co-development rights and future joint commercialisation to Pleco’s fixed-dose combination (FDC) PTX-061 for the treatment of AML, with the potential to expand into SCLC with its PTX-062 programme.
Ivo Timmermans, Chief Executive Officer of Pleco Therapeutics, commented: “We have developed Plecoid Agents based on breakthrough research performed at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, which evidenced that many AML patients have significantly elevated levels of toxic metals in their bone marrow and blood, resulting in poor overall survival.
“We are very encouraged by the interim results from an exploratory clinical study, which demonstrated that the administration of chelating agents with standard of care chemotherapy resulted in complete remission in 85% of high-risk AML patients in this study. We are very excited to partner with Hyloris and look forward to our discussions with the FDA and mapping-out the clinical development strategy that is required for approval in AML.”
Lina Adams
