ActoGenix wins €900K grant for mucostitis treatment

Development grant

Belgian spin-out ActoGeniX NV has been awarded a €900,000 grant by the Flemish government through IWT, the Institute for Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders, to support the clinical development of AG013, a novel ActoBiotic for the treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients.

The IWT grant will fund a Phase Ib clinical study which ActoGeniX initiated this month. AG013 is the second clinical programme  in ActoGeniX’s portfolio, next to AG011, which is in a Phase IIa clinical trial in inflammatory bowel disease.

ActoGenix won approval for the AG013 trial in May this year and the study has started in collaboration with six oncology centres in the US. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate safety and tolerability of AG013, but it will also allow collection of initial efficacy data.

Mark Vaeck, CEO of ActoGeniX said theIWT grant is a strong endorsement of the AG013 programme which allows ActoGeniX to rapidly move forward to develop this product in the clinic. Oral mucositis is a painful inflammation of the oral mucosa, affecting cancer patients and making daily activities such as eating, drinking and talking difficult or impossible. A severe and debilitating condition for which no effective cure, it affects around 2 million patients each year in the US and Europe.

AG013 is based on ActoGeniX’s proprietary TopAct technology platform, and consists of an oral rinsing solution. ActoGeniX was formed in 2006 as a spin-out from VIB (the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, and the Ghent University.