Xanthus aims to improve efficacy and reduce side-effects using proprietary
technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Xanthus Life Sciences today
announced that it has received a grant valued at up to $2.3 million from the
National Cancer Institute (NCI) to develop its proprietary personalized dosing
(ParaMetabolic) technology to improve the way cancer drugs are dosed. Xanthus
intends to license its ParaMetabolic technology to companies for their use in
drug development and lifecycle management.
Xanthus' process for determining an individual's optimal dose involves
giving the patient an initial dose of drug and then measuring the amount of
drug remaining in the person together with patient-specific biomarkers of drug
exposure. This data is then analyzed with proprietary software that
determines a score for each patient. The score correlates to the dose of drug
that best meets their individual characteristics while minimizing the risk of
side-effects. Xanthus' technology takes into account not only the genetic
makeup of the individual, but also the non-genetic factors that govern
responses to therapy, such as, the effects of other drugs taken concurrently;
diet; metabolic rate; major organ functions; and blood flow.
"By moving beyond the traditional 'one-size-fits-all' approach to therapy,
we hope this technology will enable physicians to optimize the therapeutic
benefit of certain anticancer drugs for each patient," said Richard T. Dean,
Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Xanthus Life Sciences. "We believe our
approach to optimizing treatment regimens through individualized dosing is a
practical evolution towards the way patients may be treated with certain drugs
in the future."
Alfred Ajami, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Xanthus said,
"Personalized dosing or ParaMetabolics works by integrating all of the sources
of variability in an individual to seek to optimize the dose of a drug. In
this way, each person can receive a dose of drug tailored to their
requirements that is neither too low nor too high, thus reducing the chances
that the drug will be ineffective or cause unnecessary side-effects."
About Xanthus
Xanthus is an oncology drug development company. Xanthus' small molecule
candidates are Xanafide(TM), Symadex(TM) and Clomet(TM) which are advancing in
clinical and preclinical development for multiple cancer indications. Each of
these product candidates was in-licensed based on significant clinical and/or
preclinical data supporting safety and activity. Separately, Xanthus also has
proprietary technology to individualize patient dosing, which it believes may
help improve the performance of certain drugs in development, and facilitate
the life cycle management of certain marketed products, without limiting
patient populations or markets.
Xanthus is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with an additional
facility in Montreal, Quebec. More information is available at
http://www.xanthus.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Xanthus
that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For this purpose, any
statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be
deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the
words, "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "estimates," "intends,"
"should," "could," "will," "may," and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors
that could cause Xanthus' actual results to differ materially from those
indicated by such forward-looking statements, including risks as to whether
results obtained in early clinical studies or in preclinical studies such as
the studies referred to above will be indicative of results obtained in future
clinical trials or warrant additional trials; whether products based on
Xanthus' technology will advance through the clinical trial process and
receive approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration or
equivalent foreign regulatory agencies; whether the company will have the cash
resources to develop and commercialize its products; and whether the patent
and patent applications owned or licensed by Xanthus will protect the
Company's technology and prevent others from infringing it. Xanthus disclaims
any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Contacts:
Kari Watson, MacDougall Biomedical Communications, Inc. --
kwatson@macbiocom.com or (508) 647-0209
Richard T. Dean, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Xanthus Life Sciences --
(617) 225-0522
SOURCE Xanthus Life Sciences
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.xanthus.com
CONTACT:
Kari Watson of MacDougall Biomedical
Communications, Inc., +1-508-647-0209, kwatson@macbiocom.com; or
Richard T. Dean, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Xanthus Life
Sciences, +1-617-225-0522
|
