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Kazia Therapeutics studies evaluate therapeutic candidates in ovarian cancer and brain tumours

Last updated: 18:30 01 May 2019 EDT, First published: 04:30 01 May 2019 EDT

Snapshot

The oncology-focused biotech is a mid-clinical-stage therapeutics company.

word cancer under magnifying glass
  • The company’s candidates Cantrixil and GDC-0084 are being studied in ovarian cancer and brain tumours
  • Kazia is listed on a number of markets and is focused on industry and investor education
  • It recently presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2019 Annual Meeting

What does Kazia Therapeutics do?

Kazia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:KZA) (FRA:NV9) (NASDAQ:KZIA) (FRA:NV9M) is a mid-stage Australian biotechnology company specialising in oncology-focused pharmaceutical drug development. The multi-listed Sydney company is undertaking a number of clinical trials in humans in the United States and Australia under the guidance of the US Food and Drug Administration.

The junior Australian company appeared at this year’s American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, to present phase I data from a study of its Cantrixil treatment for ovarian cancer.

Kazia is focused on spreading word of its results in ovarian cancer with Cantrixil and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain cancer therapy GDC-0084 to investors, being profiled in a number of closely-followed junior-stock media outlets in recent months.

Kazia is led by chief executive officer & executive director Dr James Garner, a life sciences executive and trained physician with strong experience in regional and global new medicine development from preclinical evaluation through to commercialisation staging. Garner has worked with Biogen and Takeda, led research and development strategy for Sanofi for the Asia-Pacific region and was previously a strategy consultant for Bain & Company.

What does Kazia Therapeutics own?

The key assets are Cantrixil, which is being studied as a treatment for ovarian cancer, and GDC-0084 which is being looked at as a potential therapy for a more severe type of brain cancer.

First-in-class development candidate Cantrixil (TRX-E-002-1) targets the full spectrum of cancer cells, including tumour-initiating cells which may cause cancer recurrence.

The study of the intra-peritoneal (IP)-delivered chemotherapy candidate in patients at US and Australian hospitals falls under Kazia’s investigational new drug application approved by the FDA in 2016.

Cantrixil has potential as a treatment for late-stage disease — stages III and IV — which currently have poor survival ratings.

Kazia is hopeful its therapeutic could become a front-line therapy for the killer disease as oncologists seek to extend patient survival times and reduce relapse rates among successfully-treated patients.

Ovarian cancer is a lucrative drug market for cancer therapeutics companies, with the US$500 million industry tipped to grow to US$1 billion within a five-year period.

Another cancer with often poor prognosis is brain cancer.

Brain tumours or malignant glioblastomas such as grade IV glioblastoma multiforme claim many lives, with treatments offering poor prognosis.

Kazia’s solution to glioblastoma multiforme is the targeted therapy GDC-0084 which modulates the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway.

PI3K is disordered in more than 85% of GBMs, and in a number of other cancers, not just brain tumours.

GDC-0084 works by crossing the blood-brain barrier, an important aspect to affecting brain tissue.

Genentech previously showed GDC-0084 had acceptable tolerability in a patient group of people with advanced brain tumours, the majority with GBM.

GDC-0084 also reduced tumour size in some patients, as presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in June 2016.

Clinical study of the therapeutic by Kazia started last year as it sought definitive proof-of-concept clinical data.

Inflection points

  • Clinical trial milestones and endpoints

  • Funding milestones, clinical trial phasing and pipeline progression

  • Significant transactions

Kazia CEO Dr James Garner pleased with ovarian cancer candidate

“We’ve had some really good feedback actually … one of the things that’s been exciting is that in addition to the safety data we’ve presented, there’s some pointers that our drug [Cantrixil] is working,” Kazia CEO and executive director Dr James Garner told Proactive Investors last month.

“We saw more than half of the [ovarian cancer] patients (in) stable disease, that suggest that the drug is slowly or stopping the progression of their cancer.”

 

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