Oxford University’s Pharminox looks to small molecules for cancer cure

The business idea behind Pharminox is to take a chemistry-driven approach for the discovery of cancer treatment instead of the target-driven strategy.

“The target-driven approach has not been fantastically successful in producing the blockbuster drugs,” said Peter Worrall, chief executive of Pharminox, in an interview.

Pharminox progresses a number of discovery programmes which include completely new classes of anti-cancer agent with novel mechanisms of action. The company is actively seeking licensed molecules or programmes to identify late stage discovery and early stage clinical development programmes which can complement with its internal research activities.

Pharminox has last week agreed to license a programme of agents targeting telomere signalling from Cancer Research Technology Ltd., a wholly owned unit of the independent funder of research Cancer Research UK. Pharminox is now planning to take the programme’s lead candidate, RHPS4, into formal preclinical trials within the next 12 months.

The molecule RHPS4 has shown anti-tumour activity against a range of common human tumours in in vitro and in vivo testing. RHPS4 could disrupt the function of the telomere, the single-stranded piece of DNA at the end of chromosomes. RHPS4 is also an inhibitor of telomerase, an enzyme whose role is to maintain telomere length in order to prevent cells entering from dying in the process known as apoptosis. Telomerase is known to be highly up-regulated in 90 per cent of all cancer cells.

The CRT’s programme has come out of research by Professor Malcolm Stevens, Director of the Cancer Research UK Experimental Cancer Chemotherapy group at the University of Nottingham. Also Chief Scientific Officer of Pharminox. Stevens was responsible for the discovery and early development of temozolomide (Temodaltm), a treatment for glioma (the most prevalent form of brain cancer), which is marketed by Schering Plough and in 2005 achieved global sales of almost $600 million.

“We don’t have a platform technology as such,” said Worrall. “Stevens’ approach is to discover interesting molecule that are active in biological screens against tumors. He then starts to investigate what the target is and why the drugs are doing what it’s doing.

Pharminox, which was established in late 2001, originally based its science on research from Oxford University professor Gordon Lowe, who died in August 2003. In early 2004 Stevens agreed to join Pharminox. The company’s discovery activities now centre around Stevens’ group at the University of Nottingham.

The company, which has raised about £2 million in funding since its inception, counts Oxford University and IP2IPO as its “significant” shareholders, Worrall said. The company also has a pipeline of compounds breast, ovarian, colorectal, lung, renal and brain cancers, as well as melanoma and TB.