Avacta Group PLC said on Wednesday its candidate for multiple forms of cancer, AVA6000 Pro-doxorubicin, is advancing to its fourth dose cohort.
This follows ‘a positive review of the safety and tolerability data from the dosing of the third cohort.’ The drug moved to the third cohort in late June.
Avacta is a Cambridge, England-based drug developer and diagnostics company.
The fourth cohort will receive an AVA6000 dosing of 200 milligrams per square metre of body surface area, up from 160 milligrams for the third and 120 milligrams for the second cohort.
Avacta is trialling AVA6000 on several forms of cancer, including pancreatic, colorectal, breast, head & neck, ovarian, bladder and non-small cell lung cancer.
AVA6000 is a form of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin, which slows or stops the growth of cancer cells by blocking an enzyme called topo isomerase 2.
AVA6000 aims to reduce adverse effects of doxorubicin by limiting its exposure to healthy tissue. It seeks to achieve the reduction by detecting a high concentration of a fibroblast activation protein in cells. Many solid tumours have a high concentration of the protein, in comparison with healthy tissues, Avacta explained.
The company said the market size of generic chemotherapeutic agents, known as anthracyclines, is expected to grow to $1.38 billion by 2024. Doxorubicin is an anthracycline.
Avacta shares were 4.9% higher at 131.75 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
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