Avacta Group PLC (AIM:AVCT), a clinical stage oncology drug company, said it will advance the first-in-human phase I trial of its AVA6000 pro-doxorubicin cancer drug to the fourth dose cohort.
AVA6000 is a novel form of doxorubicin modified with Avacta's precision delivery platform to improve safety and therapeutic index.
An analysis of the third cohort has been completed by the company's safety data monitoring committee (SDMC), which recommended clinical trial continue as planned and escalate to next dose of AVA6000 at 200mg.
AVA6000 limits cell penetration of the drug, and therefore its cell killing impact, until it is specifically activated by fibroblast activation protein, which is highly expressed in many solid tumours.