The Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX: SPL) share price is charging higher on Tuesday morning.
At the time of writing the dendrimer products developer's shares are up 7% to $1.31.
Why is the Starpharma share price charging higher?
This morning Starpharma announced the successful completion of the phase 1 component of its phase 1/2 trial for DEP cabazitaxel.
DEP cabazitaxel is a patented, detergent free, nanoparticle version of the cancer drug, Jevtana.
Jevtana is a leading oncology agent used to treat advanced prostate cancer and is also under development for other cancers including testicular, ovarian, breast, and head and neck.
According to today's release, the phase 1 trial of DEP cabazitaxel met its objective of evaluating safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy data, and identifying a recommended phase 2 dose.
The trial enrolled 14 patients with a range of cancers, including prostate, ovarian, cholangiocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Efficacy signals were observed in 67% of evaluable patients and included prolonged stable disease (>47 weeks) and significant reductions in specific tumour biomarkers such as prostate specific antigen.
The release advises that these efficacy signals are particularly encouraging given all patients in the study were heavily pre-treated and had either progressed or had stopped responding to prior anti-cancer therapies to qualify for entry into the DEP cabazitaxel study.
Management advised that the trial will now transition seamlessly into phase 2, with two new sites initiated and recruitment activities already underway.
Starpharma CEO, Dr Jackie Fairley, said, "We're pleased to advance our second DEP product to phase 2, and are very excited to see the promising efficacy signals observed in such a resistant patient cohort, and the remarkably low incidence of adverse events, including bone-marrow toxicity/neutropenia, with DEP cabazitaxel. We look forward to sharing these results with commercial partners."
DEP cabazitaxel has the potential to be a lucrative product for Starpharma. It estimates that Jevtana sales will exceed US$500 million this year.
