Following approval by the Russian Ministry of Health, Russian biotechnology company MetaMax will begin the trial of its lead anticancer compound MM-D37K. The first patients have been enrolled in a phase 1/2a clinical trial of a promising approach to treat malignant neoplasms.

MetaMax is financed by Maxwell Biotech Venture Fund, set up with the participation of RVC. The trial will enroll 21 patients with advanced solid malignancies, including glioblastoma and gastrointestinal tumours.

The clinical trial of MM-D37K is being conducted at some of the major Russian oncology centers with a strong 1/2a phase cancer clinical trials background. The main goal of the trial is to investigate safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of multiple use of the study drug in different dose levels, to assess the tumor response to the therapy. Additionally the trial will evaluate the correlation of the therapeutic effect with biomarker levels to select patient populations for further clinical trials of MM-D37K.

Vladimir Bozhenko, Scientific Advisor of MetaMax says “Inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 is one of the most promising approaches in treatment of malignant diseases. This is due to the fact that tumor cells frequently lose the endogenous inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases. This leads to an uncontrolled division of the cells. We hope that MM-D37K, by means of recovering the lost functions, will activate the controlled death of the tumor cells, and prevent metastasing to other organs”.

MetaMax LLC is a private biotech company founded in 2010 to develop innovative biopharmaceutical drugs targeting the most prevalent and dangerous systemic diseases.