Pharmaxis Ltd’s drug discoveries have been given a boost after the Australian government awarded two grants totalling A$1.4 million to respected scientific collaborators to advance work they are conducting on the company's discoveries.
Associate Professor Thomas Cox of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research has received a A$827,500 NHMRC Development Grant to lead a multidisciplinary team investigating PXS‐5505 as a promising new treatment approach for pancreatic cancer.
The Development Grant scheme provides financial support to individual researchers and/or research teams to undertake health and medical research within Australia at the proof-of-concept stage that specifically drives towards a commercial outcome within a foreseeable timeframe.
The second grant of A$590,200 has been awarded to Professor Fiona Wood and Associate Professor Mark Fear of the University of Western Australia to work on a novel small molecule from the Pharmaxis pre‐clinical pipeline for tissue repair and inflammatory skin disease.
Commenting on the two grants, PXS chief executive officer Gary Phillips said, “We are delighted that the long-term scientific collaborations we have with the Garvan, UTS and UWA have been recognised in an extremely competitive government grant process that historically only awards 10% of submissions.
"Together, our work aims to support commercialisation of new treatment approaches for pancreatic cancer and various skin diseases, which we hope will deliver significant benefits for patients.”
New approach for pancreatic cancer
Professor Cox and his Garvan team will conduct further preclinical studies of the experimental PXS-5505 treatment for pancreatic cancer in combination with chemotherapy.
The team will also aim to validate biomarkers they previously identified as a potential tool to guide which patients are most likely to benefit from the therapeutic approach and to monitor treatment response in real-time.
At the same time, PXS is advancing a separate phase 2 bone cancer myelofibrosis clinical trial for PXS‐5505, with an IND also granted to explore its potential in liver cancer.
The importance of this study shouldn’t be underestimated: the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is less than 10% and treatment resistance to chemotherapy is a significant problem.
Associate Professor Cox said, “Treatment resistance in pancreatic cancer is partially driven by fibrosis – a process by which scar tissue builds up throughout and around the tumour tissue. This scar tissue can prevent treatments from reaching their tumour target and also stimulate cancer growth and spread.
“Tumours need specific enzymes called lysyl oxidases to build the main constituent of this damaging scar tissue. Our preclinical studies in experimental models have revealed that targeting lysyl oxidases can reduce fibrosis and improve the efficiency of chemotherapy. Further, they have pointed us to an experimental therapy that we will now help progress to clinical trials.”
New treatment for tissue repair
In parallel to the work being done by Garvin with regard to pancreatic cancer, Professor Fiona Wood and Associate Professor Mark Fear, from UWA’s Burn Injury Research Unit, together with Dr Mehra Haghi, University of Technology Sydney, and Pharmaxis have been awarded A$590,264 to examine PXS’s serine protease inhibitor as a potential new treatment for tissue repair and inflammatory skin disease.
Slow tissue repair, excessive scarring and many skin diseases are driven by the body’s inappropriate or excessive immune response to an injury or environmental trigger. A key enzyme class that causes this excessive response are serine proteases which will be targeted in the research work.
“It is great to be working with Pharmaxis on a new compound and drug target to modify tissue repair and inflammatory skin disease. As our previous collaboration with the anti‐fibrotic drug PXS‐6302 now moves into clinical trials, this new grant gives us an opportunity to target a new pathway with the potential to improve the healing trajectory for patients, reducing time in hospital and improving their outcomes,” Associate Professor Fear said.
About PXS
Pharmaxis is an Australian clinical-stage drug development company developing drugs for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, with a focus on myelofibrosis.
PXS has an experienced drug development team with a world-leading expertise in amine oxidase chemistry that has discovered numerous drugs that act on inflammation and fibrosis. Five of those drugs have progressed into human studies after successful completion of pre‐clinical testing.
The company has also developed two respiratory products which are approved and supplied in global markets, generating ongoing revenue.
PXS is developing its drug PXS‐5505 for the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis which causes a build-up of scar tissue that leads to loss of production of red and white blood cells and platelets. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to PXS‐5055 for the treatment of myelofibrosis and permission under an Investigational Drug Application (IND) to progress a phase 1c/2 clinical trial that began recruitment in Q1 2021.
PXS‐5505 is also being investigated as a potential treatment for other cancers such as pancreatic cancer. The FDA has granted an IND for a phase 1c/2a clinical trial in liver cancer.