Coiled Therapeutics (AIM:COIL, OTCQB:COTXF), a clinical-stage oncology company developing medicines for hard-to-treat cancers, has created a new oral formulation of its lead drug candidate designed to improve how the treatment is absorbed by the body.
The AIM-listed company said it expects to dose the first patient with the reformulated version of AO-252 this month.
AO-252 is a first-in-class, brain-penetrant inhibitor of TACC3, a protein linked to tumour growth.
The new formulation is a lipid-based softgel, a capsule that delivers the drug in a pre-dissolved state.
The company said this approach should produce more consistent absorption than the current tablet, which struggles to deliver the drug reliably at higher doses.
That limitation constrains the amount of drug reaching the body and reduces consistency across different dosing conditions.
The softgel is intended to overcome the problem, using a method already applied in approved cancer therapies, which the company said offers a well-understood development and regulatory route.
The reformulation follows encouraging early clinical results.
The most recent data from an ongoing Phase I study showed a clinical benefit rate of 80% in patients taking the drug twice daily, compared with 40% in those dosed once daily.
Each group contained five patients, and tumour reductions were seen in people with ovarian and endometrial cancer.
That data related to the existing tablet and provided the rationale for the new design.
The company said the softgel supports its move into targeted dose expansion cohorts in ovarian and prostate cancer.
It is aiming to enrol up to 30 patients by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Coiled Therapeutics (AIM:COIL, OTCQB:COTXF) said it remained on track with its development roadmap, with fuller data from the expansion cohorts expected in the second half of 2026.
Chief executive Sridhar Vempati said the next patients would be dosed this month, describing it as a key step in the dose expansion programme.
He said the softgel was designed to address the absorption limitations of the tablet.
Vempati added that, combined with the clinical benefit already seen, the new formulation had the potential to strengthen the drug's prospects of delivering meaningful outcomes as trials advanced.
