SAFC services sought by French biotech

By Kirsty Barnes

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Cancer Pharmacology Pre-clinical development

SAFC will provide chemical development services for a new cancer
treatment belonging to French biotech firm Affichem.

Under the deal, chemists at the Manchester facility of SAFC's pharma business segment will conduct process research and development on the synthesis of the material to develop a production process that will make enough of the preclinical compound for clinical trials and later commercial production should the trials be successful.

The potential new drug, Dendrogenine A, is a "first in class" molecule dedicated to the treatment of aggressive cancers, said Affichem.

Based on new family of compounds derived from sterols, the compound contains an original mechanism of action, which makes tumor-producing, tumor-specific antigens and activates the cytotoxic T response against the tumor through the stimulation of the monocyte differentiation into "dendritic like" cells, said the firm.

Affichem said it expects to begin the phase I/II oncology clinical trials of the drug as soon as possible.

According to SAFC President Frank Wicks, the aim of the outsourcing relationship is "to offer a faster and more efficient method to obtain the drug candidate."

In November, Australian pharma company Bionomics signed a deal with SAFC Pharma for the scale-up of its flagship cancer drug.

Under the terms of the agreement, a batch of one and a half kilograms of the drug, BNC105, will be manufactured and used to complete pre-clinical studies as well as Phase I and II clinical trials, expected to start at the end of next year.

Curalogic, a Danish biotechnology company, also appointed SAFC's Pharma business segment to provide protein isolation, extraction and purification services as part of its product development to treat Allergic Rhinitis.

The deal follows closely behind an agreement struck with medical innovations company BTG to provide chemical development services relating to BGC20-1259, a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

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