Engineering cancer therapeutics

Ovarian cancer is an extremely deadly disease characterised by an abnormal growth of ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal tissue with malignant tumours spreading beyond the site of origin into the peritoneal cavity and affecting the organs within (e.g. the spleen, bowel mesentery and liver). There were 313,959 new cases of ovarian cancer worldwide in 2020 [GLOBOCAN] and it is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women [ACS]. There haven't been major improvements in outcomes for close to half a century. Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1975 experienced a five-year survival rate of 36% whereas the American Cancer Society estimates the rate to have only progressed to 49% by 2019. For most patients, surgery is the first line of treatment. This is usually followed by chemotherapy with typically devastating side effects including hair loss, nausea, vomiting, appetite loss, pain, weakened immunity and fatigue. There is a compelling patient need and large commercial opportunity for innovative therapies that significantly improve on chemotherapy efficacy and tolerability. BMT101 offers such an exciting new therapeutic approach.

We are developing Oncojans, a promising new class of drug-loaded, long-acting particles, designed to precisely target and gain entry to cancer cells. In the tumours, they slowly release drugs at the point of need whilst sparing healthy tissue. Early preclinical studies for BMT101, our lead ovarian cancer candidate, compared to the clinical standard of care, paclitaxel, have shown very encouraging results including over 10-fold increases in drug concentration in tumours, 65-fold reductions in tumour burden, a 4-fold increase in survival and a reduction in toxicity. This includes work in immunocompetent models of advanced ovarian cancer disease.  BMT101 and future engineered Oncojans could be transformational in the treatment of cancer patients.