Nanomedicine company CytImmune disclosed in a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it’s raising up to $1 million for its experimental cancer treatment, which uses nanoparticles of gold to deliver potent chemotherapy drugs to tumors.
Now in the clinical stage, CytImmune has been working on its technology platform for more than 20 years. Its lead candidate, Aurimune is a compound that consists of a tumor-killing agent bound to the surface of colloidal gold nanoparticles.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
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The agent, recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha, is a known tumor-killing drug but has not been able to be used widely because of dose-limiting toxicity. But the idea behind nanomedicine is that it’s more efficient in its delivery of the drug to the disease site, so a doctor can use less of a drug and the patient will experience fewer side effects.
CytImmune has completed dosing in its phase I safety trial of Aurimune in advanced stage solid tumor patients, according to the company’s website. Early data has suggested that Aurimune accumulates in and around tumor sites, and avoids surrounding healthy tissue. A phase 2 trial will combine the nanoparticles with a chemotherapy drug in patients with pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers, melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma, the website says.
Although some therapies have already been approved, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to define guidelines for nanomedicines, which will be crucial in determining how emerging nanotechnology companies like CytImmune proceed, since materials may function in different ways on normal and nanoscales, and there may be unique features of nanoparticles that induce toxic effects if they are not cleared from the cells.
The demand for nanosized medical products is expected to grow over the next several years, with drug delivery and in-vivo imaging methods progressing the fastest. Several nanotechnology companies are developing and commercializing products using gold nanoparticles for detection and diagnostic purposes, and numerous institutional labs are working with gold nanoparticles in treating cancer, but CytImmune appears to be the furthest along in commercializing a product and using them in this way.
