Lorus receives excellent GTI-2501 results
Lorus Therapeutics Inc LOR
Shares issued 120,945,940 Nov 14 close $2.12
Wed 15 Nov 2000 News Release
Dr. Jim Wright reports
Lorus Therapeutics has reached another major milestone with the excellent
results of its lead anticancer drug GTI-2501 in preclinical toxicology
studies. These results allow the company to file for an investigational new
drug application (IND) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in
preparation to begin a phase I clinical trial in first quarter 2001.
Based on the latest findings, which showed that GTI-2501 was well tolerated
in studies using rodents and primates, researchers believe that GTI-2501
could be used safely in clinical trials with human patients, at
concentrations that exceed potential therapeutic doses.
In earlier announcements, Lorus reported that GTI-2501 exhibited remarkable
antitumour properties when tested in standard mouse models with a variety
of different human cancer lines, such as tumours derived from the colon,
breast, lung, kidney, ovary, skin and pancreas. The most dramatic results
revealed complete tumour regressions in all mouse models with human tumours
derived from kidney and breast cancers. And, following the tumour
regression there was no tumour regrowth even after the treatment was
stopped.
These exceptional findings led to the issue of a key U.S. patent in June,
2000, that specifically protects GTI-2501 technology
"The outstanding antitumour activity of GTI-2501 in preclinical tests and
the positive toxicology results recently obtained have triggered the
decision by Lorus to begin manufacturing the quantities of GTI-2501
required to start the clinical trial program as soon as possible," said Dr.
Jim A. Wright, president and chief scientific officer of Lorus. "GTI-2501
has demonstrated significant progress in a relatively short period of time.
These successful findings further our strategy of achieving a minimum of
five different clinical trials with three different technologies within the
year. This clinical progress adds significant value to our product
pipeline."
Dr. Richard Schilsky of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Centre
will conduct the phase I clinical trial. Dr. Schilsky is internationally
recognized as a leading clinical investigator in oncology and is also the
principle investigator in the successful clinical trial of Lorus's
GTI-2040. Last month Lorus announced that GTI-2040 will advance to the
phase II clinical trial program, and Dr. Wright, presented the excellent
preclinical and interim clinical results of GTI-2040 at the Fifth World
Congress on Advances in Oncology and the Third International Symposium on
Molecular Medicine.
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for
"forward-looking" statements.
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