1. Our Product Candidates
Multi-functional drugs that target stem cells to combat cancer and restore immunity
Chemokine scientists have designed drug candidates that can turn diseased cells off or switch healthy cells on. The compounds are synthetic peptides developed using rational design methods with the ability to target receptors on cells of diseased tissue or healthy tissue, depending on the application.
Cancer
The company's anti-cancer compound CTCE-9908 targets a receptor found on many cancers called CXCR4. Blocking the receptor with CTCE-9908 has the potential to
- inhibit blood vessel growth to the tumor;
- inhibit migration of cancer cells leading to metastases;
- enhance chemotherapy sensitivity by inhibiting cancer cell adhesion to protective tissues in the body (endothelial cells).
Immune Recovery
CTCE-0214, the Company's second product, targets a natural chemokine that stimulates bone marrow stem cells to restore infection-fighting white blood cell recovery, platelet regeneration and stem cell mobilization. The Company has recently completed a Phase I study in normal healthy volunteers.
2. Unmet Medical Need:
New Treatments for Cancer
With its unique mechanism of action, CTCE-9908 has the potential to address a large and growing cancer market either alone or in combination with many established drugs that attack cancer through different mechanisms of action.
Cancer is a major health care problem according to the National Cancer Institute:
- Approximately 23% of all deaths in the U.S. in 2001 were caused by cancer
- There were 1,368,030 new cases of cancer in 2004 in the U.S., including
- 230,110 prostate cancers;
- 217,440 female breast cancers;
- 173,770 lung cancers; and
- 146,940 cancers of the colon/rectum.
- The risk of being diagnosed over one's lifetime with cancer is approximately 46% of U.S. males and 38% of U.S. females
According to the American Cancer Society:
- About one-third of patients with cancer, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers, have metastases that are detected at the time their cancer is first diagnosed
- Another third of patients have metastases that are too small to be detected by usual diagnostic tests.
- These micrometastases, however, will eventually grow into clinically significant metastases if the patient receives no treatment or local treatment of the primary tumor only.
CTCE-0214 is a potential therapy for patients with chemotherapy induced neutropenia and thrombocytopenia and has the potential to be used alone or in combination with other supportive care cytokine-based drugs for cancer patients.
- World-wide sales of neutropenia treatments in 2003 were approximately US$3 billion and are projected to increase to over US$4.5 billion by 2008 according to Business Communications Company, Inc.
- The market for immune system recovery and stem cell mobilization is currently served by only a few products. There is a strong need for products that have the potential to enhance the performance of the growth factors currently in use or provide additional resources in maintaining proper physiological responses in the body.
Chemokines and their role in health and disease:
Chemokine Therapeutics Corp. is one of the first biotechnology companies to develop synthetic versions of chemokines with potential applications to address many unmet medical needs in cancer, blood disorders, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. Chemokines are a new class of cytokines, a group of small, soluble proteins, known as chemoattractant proteins, which signal biological responses from stem cells that play a critical role in the immune system. Many of these biological signals are necessary for fighting infection, as well as tissue repair and regeneration. However, chemokines are also known to play an important role in cancer and autoimmune disorders which can paradoxically contribute to the survival and growth of abnormal cells that cause disease.
Copyright © 2006 Chemokine Therapeutics Corporation. All rights reserved.