New breast cancer solution enters preclinical trials in St. Pete

Biocad, an innovative developer in St. Petersburg,  announced  the launch of a preclinical trial phase for its new breast cancer solution. The drug candidate is expected to show efficacy in fighting the disease at both early and advanced stages. 

The new candidate is capable of blocking two receptors simultaneously, the biotech company said—not only the HER2 receptors most of the solutions available in the market currently target, but also the HER3 receptor. By linking up with the HER2, the HER3 is said to spur tumor growth and metastases considerably, while rendering treatment with monospecific anti-HER2 antibodies ineffective. 

The effort has cost the Russian company more than a million dollars in investment. Biocad hopes the drug will hit the market in 2020. 

As the St. Pete researchers noted, in spite of a large number of breast cancer solutions currently available in the market, including those specifically targeting the HER2 receptor, such as trastuzumabum, there’s been little improvement reported so far. In most cases, this therapy produces little or no result because tumors are just resistant to drugs. 

What Biocad has come up with is one of the first-ever monoclonal antibodies to be able to suppress the mechanisms of drug resistance development in a tumor and effectively impact tumors that are known for lack of responsiveness to trastuzumabum, the Russian developers said. 

The drug candidate has been reportedly developed using sophisticated methods of mathematical modeling, enabling the researchers to pick what are thought to be most effective and safe molecules from Biocad’s vast immune libraries, and turn them into future drugs. 

Breast cancer accounts for 17% of all cancer cases in Russian women, which makes it number one oncologic killer of female patients in this country.

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