Apollon Formularies PLC (AQSE:APOL) said its medical cannabis formulations were successful in killing triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells in 3D cell cultures in independent lab testing.
The finding comes just over a month after the company revealed its formulations were successful in killing HER2+ breast cancer cells.
The latest work was performed under a joint testing agreement with Aion Therapeutics Inc (CSE:AION), a British Columbia-based pharmaceutical group trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of the disease that accounts for up to 20% of all breast cancer cases and has an extremely poor prognosis.
According to Richard Pazdur, director of the US Food & Drug Administration’s Oncology Center of Excellence: "There is intense interest in finding new medications to help treat metastatic triple-negative breast cancer."
Apollon’s testing was carried out by BIOENSIS, an independent, pre-clinical predictive pharmaceutical testing laboratory. The medical cannabis formulations were developed by Apollon Formularies at its labs in Jamaica.
"Cannabinoids have been seen to exert 'anti-tumour effects by a number of different means, including killing cancer cells directly as well as inhibiting transformed cell growth and tumour metastasis,” said Apollon chief executive, Stephen Barnhill.
“Apollon Jamaica, using results from its proprietary artificial intelligence-based analysis on strain genetics, has cultivated and processed certain of its proprietary medical cannabis products with cancer treatment expressly in mind.
“We are excited that our formulations have been validated via independent laboratory testing to kill both HER2+ and triple-negative breast cancer cells in 3D cell cultures through direct cytotoxicity."