Alastair Smith, Avacta Group PLC’s (LON:AVCT) chief executive, believes it has huge opportunities for a new version of cancer treatment Doxorubicin using the technology it licensed from Tufts University.
Doxorubicin has been a standard treatment for soft tissue cancers for decades, but heart toxicity issues limit its use.
Smith believes that Avacta’s Pro-Doxorubicin can eliminate many of these problems because it is inert until it gets inside a tumour.
Takeaway the side effects and Pro-Doxorubicin can be anything between a US$2-5bn a year drug, he told Proactive.
"If we see the same improvement as we have seen in animals there is a huge commercial opportunity," especially as the safety profile of fourteen other drugs might potentially be enhanced through Tufts technology.
Data from a phase 1 trial is scheduled for 12 months, by which time Avacta wants term sheets in place for a licensing deal that might immediately bring a US$50mln upfront payment.
That would be a genuinely transformational amount of non-diluting capital for the business, Smith says.