Patrys Limited, which is focused on developing revolutionary treatments for cancer, announced that it has completed the treatment of the first group of patients in a melanoma clinical trial for lead product PAT-SM6.

PAT-SM6 is a natural human antibody that has shown promise as a potential treatment for multiple types of cancer including melanoma; importantly, it is the first reported clinical product to target a protein on the surface of cancer cells called GRP78 that plays a number of key roles in cancer cell survival, growth and metastases.

The first group of three patients was screened at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Cancer Centre and subsequently treated at the Pain and Anaesthesia Research Clinic, which is onsite at the RAH.

The first patient in this melanoma trial was treated on 19 October 2010, with the last patient in this group completing treatment on 1 November 2010. To date, no safety issues have been observed or reported for any patients treated with PAT-SM6.

Patrys has targeted a maximum of ten patients for this trial over ten months, so the Company is well within its anticipated timeline for completing the trial. Under the trial design, in total three different dose levels will be evaluated in three groups of patients.

Patrys chief medical officer and president, Dr Marie Roskrow, commented: “We are very satisfied with the progress of this trial, both in terms of the product appearing safe to date, and the rate at which we are able to recruit patients."

Melanoma is a very serious global medical problem, with an expected doubling of incidence every 15 years. Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, where nearly 10,000 cases are diagnosed each year. Current treatments for metastatic melanoma are largely ineffective, resulting in a five year survival rate of just 16%.

Patrys CEO, Dan Devine, added: "Advancing promising products through clinical development involves a number of important operational capabilities, including being able to produce quality material at large scale and recruiting patients for clinical trials in a timely fashion. Patrys has done both well with respect to the PAT-SM6 melanoma trial, which gives us great confidence going forward both for the development of PAT-SM6 and other Patrys lead products."

The primary aim of the current melanoma trial is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of PAT-SM6. Multiple secondary endpoints are aimed at measuring the anti-tumour activity of PAT-SM6. All results will be finalised and reported at the end of the trial, which is expected to be by June 2011.


Based in Melbourne, Australia, Patrys (ASX: PAB) is focused on the development of natural human antibody therapies for cancer. Patrys has a deep pipeline of internal development candidates and additional products that are the subject of a collaboration agreement with a larger industry partner.