Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Amplia Theraputics (ATX) has received further data from its collaboration with Professor Paul Timpson of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney
- The Australian pharmaceutical company is advancing a pipeline of focal adhesion kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and fibrosis
- The research tested Amplia’s AMP945 candidate in a range of in-vitro and in-vivo experimental systems developed by Professor Timpson
- ATX says the drug impacted several key markers of disease, including the level of fibrosis and collagen maturity in the tumour environment within a mouse model of pancreatic cancer
- Further, when combined with gemcitabine, AMP945 was shown to enhance the activity of chemotherapy
- Amplia is now planning a phase two clinical trial in pancreatic cancer patients and working with a range of specialists to finalise regulatory applications and refine the study protocol
- Amplia Theraputics shares have jumped 12.2 per cent to trade at 27.5 cents each
Amplia Theraputics (ATX) has received further data from its collaboration with Professor Paul Timpson of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.
Amplia is an Australian pharmaceutical company advancing a pipeline of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and fibrosis.
The collaboration, announced last month, brings together the company’s clinical-stage FAK inhibitors with Garvan’s biological insights and clinical research network.
Recent research tested Amplia’s AMP945 candidate in a range of in-vitro and in-vivo experimental systems established over several years by Professor Timpson.
According to ATX, the results show that the drug impacted several key markers of disease, including the level of fibrosis and collagen maturity in the tumour environment within a mouse model of pancreatic cancer.
Further, when combined with gemcitabine —which is a standard of care in pancreatic cancer — AMP945 was shown to enhance the activity of chemotherapy.
Specifically, after a single round of treatment and in combination with gemcitabine, the drug caused a significant increase in levels of cleaved Caspase-3, which is a marker of cancer cell death.
A marker of cancer cell proliferation, Ki67, was significantly decreased after the combined dosing.
Amplia’s CEO John Lambert commented on the research.
“We are extremely happy to see such positive results coming out of the Timpson Lab with AMP945,” he said.
“These data provide further validation of our approach of using our proprietary FAK inhibitors to enhance the effectiveness of the current therapies for this difficult to treat disease,” Tim continued.
“It is very encouraging to see that AMP945 is able to directly reduce the levels of fibrosis is these tumour models, as well as enhance the activity of gembacitabine, which is currently standard treatment for many pancreatic cancer patients.”
In light of the results and emerging clinical data from a phase one trial in healthy volunteers, Amplia has started planning a phase two clinical trial in pancreatic cancer patients.
ATX is working with a range of clinical advisors, clinical pharmacologists, statisticians and potential vendors to finalise the required regulatory applications and refine the study protocol.
Amplia Theraputics shares have jumped 12.2 per cent to trade at 27.5 cents at 4:13 pm AEST.
