[nanoPost] Nanoparticles combine diagnostic, drug and device capabilities

Company Germany

- The company is currently developing proprietary nanoparticles that combine diagnostic, drug and device capabilities to better detect, characterize and treat cancer.

- The nanoparticles approximate the size and tumor-targeting capabilities of monoclonal antibodies. The nanoparticles are also comprised of magnetic crystals which enable several functions, including the use of MRI to track nanoparticles in the body.

Technology Platform

- developing uniquely capable, proprietary nanoparticles. Nanoparticles contain iron oxide crystal cores and are fabricated to a desired size, typically about 25 nm in diameter with an exceptionally narrow size distribution.

- Proprietary nanoparticles approximate the size and tumor-targeting capabilities of monoclonal antibodies. The nanoparticles are also comprised of magnetic crystals which enable several functions.

- Existing MRI equipment can be used to track nanoparticle location in patients, thus enabling tumor detection and verification of nanoparticle accumulation in tumors.

- The magnetic core can also be energized to increase particle penetration into tumors, release a chemotherapeutic payload, and activate the immune system.

- Chemotherapeutics are selected from commercialized compounds that have demonstrated anti-cancer potency.

- The nanoparticles combine diagnostic, drug and device capabilities to better detect, diagnose and treat cancer.

- uses targeting agents to direct particles to diseased tissues and to increase uptake into diseased cells.

- Multiple copies of a particular targeting agent are attached to a single particle, producing a multivalent structure. Such structures can exhibit large increases in binding affinity and potency compared to monomeric agents due to avidity.

- company is using small molecules, peptides, and antibody fragments as ligands.

- By including a magnetic core in the product, product can be further targeted using an external magnet. By using an alternating magnetic field, the particles can be heated locally to aid in destroying tumors and to enhance release of the chemotherapeutic.

Markets

- Cancer is the leading cause of death in people under the age of 85, and there is an urgent need for new and more effective cancer treatments.

- Targeted therapies and nanoparticle therapies are garnering very large and increasing annual revenues as they displace older, untargeted products.

- Company's cancer treatments are in the form of nanoparticles. For nanoparticulate market size comparators, the liposomal doxorubicin product, Doxil® has sales of over $100 million, and these sales are limited by its approved use for ovarian cancer and Kaposi’s sarcoma.

- Abraxane, which incorporates paclitaxel in an albumin nano-aggregate, had sales of $175 million in 2006.

- The company's nanoparticles are comprised of platinum chemotherapeutic agents. Platinum chemotherapeutics are mainstays of chemotherapeutic regimens and their use is expanding. T

- the current platin anticancer market is over $1 billion. The company's particles also include targeting agents similar to the monoclonal antibodies Avastin™ with annual sales approaching or exceeding a billion dollars.

- Potential indications for lead anti-cancer agents include lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancers, melanoma, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

- In addition, they can be targeted todestroy the blood vessels in tumors regardless of the cancer’s tissue origin.

Regulation/Product Development

- has filed a number of US patent applications to date; multiple patents have been allowed or issued.

- The Company is currently pursuing patents aggressively for its enabling nanoparticle and material inventions. G

- Going beyond the basic technology patents, the company will additionally seek composition of matter and method of use patents on specific nanoparticle components and nanoparticle therapeutic and diagnostic products.