Today, PDX Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with the Biomedical Engineering Department of Oregon Health and Science University, was awarded a phase I/II (Fast-Track) SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute to support our pre-clinical research activity during the period of May 2017 – May 2020. The grant is entitled “Nanoparticle-based targeted co-delivery of siRNA and taxane to treat drug-resistant HER2+ breast cancer”.
HER2+ breast cancer is a subtype that presents HER2 overexpression and accounts for 15-25% of invasive breast cancers. HER2+ breast cancer has poor prognosis despite the rigorous current first-line treatment using two HER2-targeted therapies (trastuzumab and pertuzumab) and one taxane (paclitaxel or docetaxel). The drug combination requires 6 hours of infusion time, costs over $250,000 per treatment course, and has many severe adverse events, while achieving a progression-free survival of only 18 months.
To address these shortcomings, we seek to develop a single therapy that can replace the three-drug combination. We will incorporate a taxane onto our recently developed nanoconstruct for targeted delivery of siRNA against HER2 (siHER2), see PDX-001.