Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX: NEU) has completed in vitro testing of its antibody screening program and has selected three fully human monoclonal antibodies to validate in an animal model using human breast cancer cells.
Monoclonal antibodies are the leading approach to molecular targeting, the fastest growing segment of biopharmaceuticals.
By 2016, six of the top ten billion dollar drugs are predicted to be monoclonal antibodies.
Parmjot Bains, Perseis chief executive officer, said “as we move forward with this exciting program, we are hopeful that it will support Breast Cancer Research Trust’s goal of reducing or eliminating breast cancer by 2018.”
Neuren is in discussions with a number of global pharmaceutical companies and intends to enter into a licensing or collaborative agreement based on results from confirmatory in vivo studies.
Neuren’s subsidiary, Perseis Therapeutics, is developing the antibodies to target Trefoil Factors one and three for the treatment of breast and other cancers.
Trefoil Factors are proteins produced by cancer cells that promote cancer growth and spread in a number of solid tumours that are expressed in up to 68% of breast cancers.
Other cancers with detected Trefoil Factors include colon, prostate and stomach cancer.
Perseis has screened a large number of candidates from three pools of mouse antibodies produced in Australia, Singapore and China.
However, the lead antibodies to be taken into animal models originate from a human antibody fragment library.
Initial screening of that library has been conducted at the University of Queensland and further screening to determine which antibodies had the ability to inhibit the growth of human breast and gastric cancer cells growing in culture has been conducted by Aragen Bioscience in the US.
Formed in 2009, Perseis is a joint venture between Neuren and the Breast Cancer Research Trust.