Dec 22 2014
Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company transforming the science of combination therapy and developing products to improve patient outcomes in cancer, today announced that the application of European patent number 2,222,278 was allowed by the European Patent Office.
The new patent, "Improved Taxane Delivery System," covers the Company's proprietary taxane prodrug nanoparticle delivery technology and CPX-8, a hydrophobic docetaxel prodrug nanoparticle, which is based on this innovative approach to drug delivery. Celator is currently applying its proprietary CombiPlex technology to drug combinations incorporating targeted agents, such as a combination of docetaxel with a heat shock protein (Hsp90) inhibitor where extended and simultaneous exposure of the two agents to solid tumors at the optimized drug ratio is expected to significantly enhance the efficacy of this combination. This should help establish the broad applicability of the CombiPlex platform in the development of combination cancer therapies. This patent provides protection until November 2028.
Celator's nanoparticle-based delivery technology provides versatile control of the pharmacokinetics and tissue accumulation of taxanes such as paclitaxel and docetaxel. The patent covers a pharmaceutical composition comprising nanoparticles or micelles, where the nanoparticles or micelles are formed from associating (i) a conjugate of taxane coupled to a hydrophobic lipid-anchor through a diglycolate linker with (ii) a lipid and/or amphiphilic stabilizer. The allowed claims may also provide patent protection for formulations combining docetaxel, and other taxanes, with molecularly targeted agents.
"By connecting a hydrophobic anchor to taxanes in a manner that readily incorporates them into stable nanoparticles, we have been able to reduce early distribution of these drugs to healthy tissues while enhancing and extending their exposure to tumor tissue," said Dr. Lawrence Mayer, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Celator. "The improved tumor drug exposure properties correlated with increased anti-tumor activity when compared with conventional formulations of docetaxel at equivalent doses and the reduced toxicity of the nanoparticle formulation in mice led to marked efficacy improvements when it was dosed at the maximum tolerated dose."
About Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc., with locations in Ewing, N.J., and Vancouver, B.C., is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company transforming the science of combination therapy, and developing products to improve patient outcomes in cancer. Celator's proprietary technology platform, CombiPlex®, enables the rational design and rapid evaluation of optimized combinations incorporating traditional chemotherapies as well as molecularly targeted agents to deliver enhanced anti-cancer activity. CombiPlex addresses several fundamental shortcomings of conventional combination regimens, as well as the challenges inherent in combination drug development, by identifying the most effective synergistic molar ratio of the drugs being combined in vitro, and fixing this ratio in a nano-scale drug delivery complex to maintain the optimized combination until exposure to the tumor following administration. Celator's pipeline includes lead product, CPX-351 (a liposomal formulation of cytarabine:daunorubicin) for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia; CPX-1 (a liposomal formulation of irinotecan:floxuridine) for the treatment of colorectal cancer; a preclinical stage product candidate, CPX-8 (a hydrophobic docetaxel prodrug nanoparticle formulation), being studied by the National Cancer Institute's Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory; and several programs exploring novel combinations of existing drugs, including molecularly targeted therapies.
Source: http://www.celatorpharma.com/