Paris: Hybrigenics raises €1.4 M to develop prostate cancer treatment

Development funding

OSEO, France’s national agency for industrial innovation, has granted Pasteur Institute spin-out Hybrigenics a refundable subsidy worth €1.4 million to develop inecalcitol, its proprietary hormone-refractory prostate cancer treatment. Phase II clinical trials have confirmed that a dose of 300 microgrammes is well tolerated.

Hybrigenics, a bio-pharmaceutical company, focuses its internal R&D programmes on targets and therapies for the treatment of cancer is developing prostate cancer treatments based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D analogue that can degrade cancer-causing proteins.  Its use in Phase II clinical trials in combination with Sanofi-Aventis' proprietary Taxotere has been shown to be well tolerated.

The funding from OSEO, which represents 47.3 per cent of total expected spending, will allow completion, by mid-2009, of Phase II clinical trials testing patient tolerance to an orally administered dose of 600 micrograms of inecalcitol, as well as subsidise regulatory pharmaceutical requirements for the authorisation of therapeutic efficacy studies.

Rémi Delansorne, CEO of Hybrigenics, said: “We are very proud that our application was accepted by OSEO for such a sizeable refundable subsidy. It will enable us to continue, or even accelerate, the clinical development of inecalcitol.”