Receptor Therapeutics Inc.
Presenter: Joseph Elliot, President & CEO
Company Information
Company Type: Pharmaceuticals
Development Stage: Private
Company Profile
The Company:
Receptor Therapeutics Inc. (the "Company")is a biopharmaceutical company focused on in-licensing and developing novel therapies for the treatment of cancer. The Company currently has one pre-clinical oncology product candidate under development and a clinical stage program just licensed in. Receptor's lead product candidate, the PoLi Drug Delivery System is being optimized for first line, local treatment of metastatic epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Receptor's second development program consists of novel methods or cancer treatment utilizing vitamin D. This program was previously licensed to another company where it showed significant survival benefits in a major cancer indication, The Company uses its experienced management, directors and advisory boards to identify, license and develop novel therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients. Receptor seeks out pre-clinical or early clinical stage anti-cancer therapies with reduced risk of failure.
PoLi Program:
Through its subsidiary, OncoTek Drug Delivery Inc., the Company has acquired an exclusive license to a proprietary and patented drug delivery technology known as PoLi, a biocompatible and biodegradable material developed by Dr. Christine Allen and Dr. Micheline Piquette-Miller of the University of Toronto. PoLi stands to provide dramatic improvements in the treatment of metastatic epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). It is formulated as a gel, which is then impregnated with active chemotherapy drugs such as the commercially available paclitaxel or docetaxel. All the component materials of PoLi are regarded as safe for humans and are present in other FDA approved products.
The PoLi gel can be either injected into the peritoneal cavity or applied perioperatively by a surgeon during cytoreductive surgery (surgical removal of all visible tumor tissue) to areas at high risk of tumor regrowth. Importantly, the gel slowly degrades and releases the chemotherapy drugs in a sustained and localized manner. It thus, provides high drug doses to tumor cells, while maintaining low systemic exposure. The PoLi drug delivery system is potentially a significant advance in the treatment of a disease that has traditionally had a poor prognosis.
First Line Perioperative Administration in Metastatic EOC:
Patients who present with metastatic ovarian cancer and are candidates for cytoreductive surgery represent the initial target market for the PoLi technology. PoLi gel containing paclitaxel would be applied during surgery to treat microscopic residual disease remaining. Current treatment does not include chemotherapy at the time of surgery making this approach novel, with no competitors.
Resistant and Recurrent EOC:
There is no widely accepted current standard of care for individuals with resistant or recurrent disease, these patients will be an important market for clinical development. Altogether, 70% of patients undergoing initial surgery and 50% of resistant/recurrent patients are good candidates for the PoLi technology. In the treatment of resistant or recurrent disease, the drug-containing gel is injected into the peritoneal cavity by syringe and provides sustained local release of chemotherapy for up to one month.
Vitamin D Program:
Therapeutically, vitamin D and its analogues have been used primarily for their calcium regulatory activities. However, vitamin D is also involved in a variety of other physiological processes through binding the vitamin D receptor, or VDR, a member of the nuclear receptor super family of transcription factors. VDR is found in over 30 tissues, including intestine, kidney, bone, brain, stomach, heart, pancreas, skin, colon, ovary, breast, prostate and activated lymphocytes. Once activated by vitamin D, VDR regulates transcription of a wide variety of genes, including several responsible for the growth and differentiation of normal and malignant cells. Vitamin D has exhibited effective anti-cancer activity at high dosage levels in multiple pre-clinical tumour models inducing differentiation, anti-proliferative activity, cell cycle arrest, decreased invasiveness, decreased metastases, and apoptosis. Pre-clinical data indicate that transient high plasma levels of vitamin D are sufficient to induce anti-cancer effect in multiple tumour cell lines including prostate, breast, colon, head and neck, lymphoma and myeloma.
Several in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical evaluations have also demonstrated that high doses of vitamin D can be effective alone or in combination with standard chemotherapy drugs.
Receptor signed an exclusive license for a patent estate covering pulsatile, high dose pre-treatment of cancers using vitamin D. This is the only vitamin D therapeutic regimen that has demonstrated clinically that it can increase survival by 50% in an important cancer. Having just finalized the license, Receptor plans an aggressive development program for its vitamin D therapeutic. The Company is assembling a world-leading team in vitamin D cancer therapeutics to direct its vitamin D cancer therapy program.
Exit Strategy:
The Company intends to take both programs through preclinical development, to IND or CTA clinical trial approval and then complete a phase I/II clinical trial demonstrating increased survival of patients. At this point it is company's current plan to monetize the programs by out-licensing, partnering or selling them.
Management and Key Personnel:
The Company's CEO, Dr. Joseph Elliot and its Chairman, James Rae have over 60 years combined business experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, having managed, merged and sold multiple companies creating value for shareholders. Dr. Elliot has extensive experience managing small companies cost effectively. Preclinical development will be managed by Dr. Robert Susick, with extensive experience managing drug development with large and small pharmaceutical companies. CMC development is managed by Dr. Peter Tomlinson, who has extensive experience with Canadian companies. The Company has aligned itself with world leading oncologists in ovarian cancer, and vitamin D cancer therapeutics.
Risk Reduction:
Receptor Therapeutics offers a unique opportunity to build value at lower risk by selecting development programs based on already approved drugs or therapeutic compounds but delivering them in a unique way that will improve efficacy and survival for cancer patients for whom current treatments offer a poor prognosis.
Presenter Bio
Dr. Elliot is a serial entrepreneur and the founding President & CEO of Receptor Therapeutics Inc. of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Elliot is well known and highly regarded in the Canadian biotechnology industry. From 1996 to 1999 he was a Vice President (Venture Capital) with MDS Capital Corp. specializing in early stage Canadian biotechnology investments. Subsequently he has played a leading management role with several biotech companies including President & CEO of LymphoSign Inc., Vice President & General Manager Operations for MDS Proteomics Inc.; Chief Operating Officer for MDS Ocata Inc.; Interim Chief Operating Officer of Exogen Neurosciences Inc. He is the former President and Chairman of PhageTech Inc. of Montreal, Quebec and Cytochroma Inc., Kingston Ontario. He is also a past director of Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. of Montreal, Quebec, and BIOSTAR Inc. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
From 1986 to 1996 Dr. Elliot founded and successfully operated several companies, which sold and distributed vaccines and sera in over 100 countries worldwide. Prior to 1986, he held senior technical and marketing positions with Pharmacia Canada Inc.(now Pfizer) and Connaught Laboratories Inc. (now Sanofi Aventis).
Dr. Elliot received his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario in 1980
Contact
Receptor Therapeutics Inc.
MaRS Centre, South Tower
101 College St., Suite 200
Toronto
ON, Canada
M5G 1L7
ph: 416-673-8153
fx: 416-673-8154
www.receptor.ca
jelliot@receptor.ca