Date: Jan 01, 2017 Author: Boris Ladwig Source: (
click here to go to the source)
Disappointing human trials of a promising cancer drug have put in jeopardy the future of a Louisville-based biotech firm, Advanced Cancer Therapeutics, which has received support from the University of Louisville Foundation and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.
Randall Riggs
The firm's president and CEO, Randall Riggs, told IL Tuesday that while the drug, PFK-158, in animal trials stopped -- and in some cases reduced -- cancer cells, results in human trials did not produce enough of an effect to retain interest from pharmaceutical companies.
In a letter to investors, Riggs wrote that during the first half of 2016, Merck & Co. and Novartis AG were "seriously interested" in acquiring the drug to advance it to commercialization. Advanced Cancer Therapeutics would have received payments including license fees and royalties on product sales.
The company, based at 300 E. Market St., tries to develop cancer drugs discovered at the University of Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center, which owns a little over 30 percent of the company. Former UofL President James Ramsey is an ACT director. The university foundation and KentuckyOne Health, which operates the cancer center, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
According to the cancer center's website, PFK-158 was being evaluated for treatment of skin, lung, colon, breast and pancreatic cancers at the University of Louisville, Georgetown University and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Because of its limited resources, Advanced Cancer Therapeutics, which has five drugs in its pipeline, focused only on the most promising product. The company has raised about $14.4 million since its launch in 2007, bringing PFK-158 to Phase 1 human trials at a fraction of the cost that pharmaceutical companies usually need, Riggs said.
However, since Merck, Novartis and the New York-based venture capital firm Stemline have withdrawn their interest, the company faces "significant headwinds in our efforts to secure a commercial partner," Riggs said in the letter.
"We're at a challenged point right now," he told IL.
Since the company was created, the industry has changed to focus especially toward immunotherapy to combat cancer, to the point that it is difficult for companies to raise funds for drugs that do not show a strong result in human trials, Riggs said.
He said he still believes that Advanced Cancer Therapeutics can find other applications for the drug, which prevents tumor cells from using glucose as fuel.
For now, however, Riggs said that to cut the company's expenses, Advanced Cancer Therapeutics is entering into employee separation agreements with him and Chief Scientific Officer Gilles Tapolsky, though both remain equity holders.
"We will remain available to ACT and the agents during the first part of 2017 so that ACT has the best chance to find a partner or venture capitalist for PFK-158," Riggs said.
At most, the company had three employees, Riggs said. A significant amount of the company's research was conducted at UofL.
By June, he said, Advanced Cancer Therapeutics will know whether its government grant request of $3 million for 2017 and 2018 has been approved.
"Therefore, ACT will be largely operating in a holding pattern during most of 2017 as we await one or more funding possibilities," Riggs said.
"To maximize our likelihood of success, we have recently devoted substantially all of the company's resources to PFK-158," the letter said. "As such, if we are unable to close on a transaction through our agents or obtain government grants by mid-2017, we will be required to wind down our business."
Riggs told IL that winding down means that Advanced Cancer Therapeutics would continue to exist in the hopes that one of the cancer drugs developed locally garners an interest from venture capital firms or pharmaceutical companies.
Disclosure: Advanced Cancer Therapeutics board chairman and co-founder Dale Boden is an investor in Insider Louisville.
