Amorfix Life Sciences, an early-stage product development company, has completed a second series of studies in a preclinical ovarian cancer animal model. The company recently reported positive results of the first proof of concept study evaluating the ability of their lead ovarian cancer antibody drug conjugate (ADC) to reduce tumour growth in a rapidly growing animal model of ovarian cancer.

These most recent data confirm this activity in a second, more slowly growing tumor model and show a statistically significant inhibition of tumour growth compared to control animals.

“These are exciting results indicating that our therapeutic antibodies can specifically deliver a toxic payload directly to tumours resulting in an inhibition of tumour growth,” said Dr Neil Cashman, Amorfix co-founder, CSO and chairman. “Our antibodies are generated against disease specific epitopes (DSEs) identified with our proprietary ProMIS discovery technology that enable the selective targeting and killing of tumour cells while sparing normal cells. These proof of concept studies validate this very innovative approach to therapeutic intervention and represent a novel path forward for the development of cancer treatments that are more effective and safer than existing cancer therapeutic regimens.”

“We have made excellent progress with our ovarian cancer programme which demonstrates the value of our business model of identifying good partners and forming strategic alliances that enable the rapid development novel therapeutics,” said Dr Robert Gundel, Amorfix president and CEO. “We are excited about these most promising results as ovarian cancer is an area of high unmet medical need and represents a very large commercial opportunity for the Company.”

The company, in collaboration with Helix BioPharma, is developing this ADC as a novel treatment for ovarian cancer. The ADC is composed of antibodies against misfolded prion protein and urease, an enzyme that acts upon a substrate compound called urea and generates toxic metabolites that kill tumour cells.

The company recently announced that exposure of ovarian tumour cells to paclitaxil, a standard chemotherapeutic agent used for the treatment of ovarian cancer, resulted in an increased binding of the ADC. These results suggest that a synergistic killing effect may be generated by co-administration of chemotherapy drugs and the ADC. The company is currently planning these combination studies in animal models of ovarian cancer.

Amorfix’s proprietary drug discovery technology, ProMIS, is a computer based algorithm that predicts Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs), those regions of proteins most likely to misfold in diseases. Misfolded proteins are found in numerous diseased cells, including various cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. The Company uses this technology to identify DSEs that are only expressed on tumour cells and not normal cells and enables it to develop antibodies that only bind to and kill tumour cells without affecting normal cells. Using this technology, Amorfix has the potential to create antibody therapeutics that are more efficacious and have a much better safety profile, with fewer side effects than current cancer therapeutics.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women, and it causes more deaths than any other type of female reproductive cancer. The cancer is often not diagnosed until late-stage disease when the cancer has spread to other organs in the body, which contributes to the short survival time following diagnosis. Ovarian cancer is typically treated with surgery and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is not very effective as a treatment and is associated with a number of potential dose-limiting side effects due to its non-specific killing of both tumour and normal cells.

Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd. is an early-stage product development company developing therapeutic antibodies and diagnostics targeting misfolded protein diseases.