Background

According to the GLOBOCAN 2008 database from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, almost 13 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2008 around the world, equivalent to more than 180 people per 100,000.  More than 7 million people died because of cancer in 2008.The United States National Cancer Institute estimates that in 2011, more than 1.5 million people were expected to be diagnosed with cancer and more than half a million die per year in the US alone. Based on rates from 2006-2008 according to the American Cancer Society, approximately 45% of men and women are diagnosed with cancer at some point.

ImmuPharma’s cancer treatment compound 

 Our Cancer Nucant program, IPP-204106, is focused on combination therapy approaches. We announced in February 2015 that the Phase I/IIa dose-finding adaptive study where the Nucant was associated with chondroitin sulphate, demonstrated that the maximum tolerated dose was 9 mg/kg.  This was the primary objective of the study.  ImmuPharma is now reviewing a number of options to further progress this program.  A grant was awarded by the EU to different EU partners (€7 million total with €430k awarded to ImmuPharma) to develop the Nucants in combination with cytotoxic drugs linked to a solid support. The concept has been validated in pre-clinical studies, and a Phase II trial is being planned.

The Group has also been awarded grants to investigate its use in age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other ophthalmological indications.

Featured research

In November 2016 we announced that Cancer Research, the prestigious medical journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (“AACR”), published a fundamental scientific paper highlighting the unique mechanism of action of IPP-204106.

The publication was entitled “Nucleolin targeting impairs the progression of pancreatic cancer and promotes the normalization of tumour vasculature” and was authored by a number of researchers working within ImmuPharma on the Company’s Cancer programme.

The key findings of the study for this compound (referred to in the paper as N6L) were:

• Nucleolin inhibition is a new anti-cancer therapeutic strategy that has been shown to dually normalise tumour vasculature and reduce its volume
• As a result, it has the potential to improve dramatically the delivery and efficacy of existing chemotherapeutic drugs, and in particular, for difficult-to-treat tumours such as Pancreatic cancer

The publication can be seen by clicking here and the website of Cancer Research is cancerres.aacrjournals.org

In May 2011, IPP-204106 (also referred to as N6L) was chosen to feature on the front cover of ‘Cancer Research’, a prestigious medical journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The article was entitled ‘A Simple Approach to Cancer Therapy Afforded by Multivalent Pseudopeptides That Target Cell-Surface Nucleoproteins’, and was authored by a number of researchers working at or with the CNRS, the research institution with which ImmuPharma is collaborating.

The key findings of this study are that the compound (referred to in the paper as ‘N6L’):

• inhibits growth of several tumour cell lines, xenograft models and blocks angiogenesis
• rapidly localizes selectively in tumour tissue
• promotes apoptosis (the death of cells, a key approach in the treatment of cancer)
• has a novel mechanism of action, acting on nucleophosmin and nucleolin

Click here to download the publication in Cancer Research Publication May 2011 with cover(1)

Click here to download a scientific paper published onNucleolin Plos One(1)