Carrington Laboratories Inc. announced its wholly-owned subsidiary DelSite Biotechnologies Inc has signed a technology license agreement with privately held ElSohly Laboratories Inc of Oxford, Mississippi, covering the use of GelSite Polymer technology in formulating an anticancer drug. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Both DelSite Biotechnologies and ElSohly Laboratories have Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Whereas DelSite's CRADA covers the development of a nasal powder vaccine for Human Papillomavirus (HPV), ElSohly's CRADA covers an anticancer drug that has demonstrated anticancer activity and reduction of metastasis of cancer cells in more than one type of cancer.

"Our interest in DelSite's technology is to take advantage of its GelSite polymer's unique chemical and stabilizing characteristics in formulating our new anticancer drug candidate. We anticipate that the GelSite polymer will enhance the solubility and extend the release time of our lead drug candidate and analogs currently under development in collaboration with the National Centre for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi," stated Dr Mahmoud ElSohly, president and laboratory director of ElSohly Laboratories.

Dr Yawi Ni, senior scientist at DelSite, said, "This agreement allows for the GelSite polymer to be used to stabilize and deliver a molecule smaller than we have worked with in the past. We look forward to being involved with this promising molecule and its analogs in the anticancer area. Naturally, it is exciting that our technology is now involved in two key areas of NCI research."

ElSohly Laboratories is a privately held company specializing in naturally derived therapeutics. One of its drug candidates has undergone human clinical trial in Europe. Funding for product development comes from private and government contracts as well as sale of reference standards for organization involved in the National Laboratory Certification Program. The company has been in business for over 20 years.