Clinical trials for anti-cancer agent Tarloxotinib
Maurice Wilkins Centre has supported the Tarloxotinib drug development programme over many years. Now, the Phase II clinical stage anti-cancer agent has been acquired by Convert Pharmaceuticals, a European-based oncology company, in a move which paves the way for clinical trials to continue at Auckland City Hospital.
Clinical trials – initially to test safety in humans (“phase I”) and then to test their effectiveness against their target disease (“phase II)” are very expensive – and become more expensive as they progress through their phases. Seeing drug development work through to fruition therefore involves working with biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, or investment companies that specialise in taking new medicines through clinical trials.
Tarloxotinib is a revolutionary cancer drug designed to help patients with head and neck cancers combat resistance to conventional therapies caused by low oxygen levels (hypoxia) within regions of existing tumours. The drug releases an ‘inhibitor’ in areas of low oxygen, a substance to activate the treatment response and allow treatment to be effective.
The team that invented Tarloxotinib was led by MWC investigators — cancer biologist Associate Professor Adam Patterson and medicinal chemist Associate Professor Jeff Smaill. They refined and optimised technology originally developed over decades by scientists at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre. The technology allows the production of drugs that only become toxic to cells in low oxygen environments such as tumours, minimising their effects on healthy cells, and their research has firmly established New Zealand as the world centre for developing this type of drug – termed “hypoxia-activated prodrugs” or HAPs.
In addition to MWC's partial support, the Tarloxotinib drug development programme was supported with substantial funding from other New Zealand funding agencies and international commercial funding.
The current Phase II clinical trial combining Tarloxotinib with radiotherapy, underway in Auckland, is supported by The Li Family Foundation through Te Aka Mātauranga Matepukupuku (The Centre for Cancer Research). Initially, this was in association with Rain Oncology and will continue under the auspices of Convert Pharmaceuticals.
Dr Andrew Macann, Radiation Oncologist at Auckland City Hospital, says Tarloxotinib has the potential to improve outcomes for patients. “We are looking forward to collaborating with Convert Pharmaceuticals in a trial in head and neck cancer here in New Zealand.
Associate Professor Adam Patterson says the Auckland City Hospital trial will, for the first time ever, directly measure dynamic changes in tumour oxygenation before and after Tarloxotinib therapy.
“These observations will be correlated with measurement of several other markers in the tumour tissue to help predict treatment outcomes.”
Opportunities for European trials employing Tarloxotinib in combination with immunotherapies are also on the horizon.
Adam says that the long-term support from the MWC has helped to realise Tarloxotinib’s journey towards these important clinical trials in New Zealand and Europe.