DelMar Pharmaceuticals (OTCQX:DMPI), a clinical-stage drug development company, entered into a collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The aim of the collaboration is to accelerate the clinical development of DelMar's lead anti-cancer candidate, VAL-083, for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and deadly form of brain cancer, the two parties said in a statement on Wednesday.
As part of the collaboration, MD Anderson will start a new Phase II clinical study with VAL-083 in patients with GBM at first recurrence/progression, prior to Avastin exposure.
"The progress we continue to make with our research shows that VAL-083 may offer advantages over currently available chemotherapies in a number of tumor types," Jeffrey Bacha, DelMar's CEO said in the statement.
"This collaboration will allow us to leverage world-class clinical and research expertise and a large patient population from MD Anderson as we extend and accelerate our clinical focus to include GBM patients following first recurrence of their disease."
VAL-083 is a "first-in-class," small-molecule chemotherapeutic. In more than 40 Phase I and II clinical studies sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, VAL-083 demonstrated clinical activity against a range of cancers including lung, brain, cervical, ovarian tumors and leukemia both as a single-agent and in combination with other treatments.
DelMar shares have lost 6.1% over the past year to close at $0.920 on Tuesday.
