A MINER turned biotechnical player making an anti-cancer drug from a declared weed is three months away from getting the first results from clinical trials relating to its cancer drug.
Solbec Pharmaceuticals has been given permission to start running human clinical trials on its SBP002 compound.
The objective of the trial is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of the compound in patients with advanced solid tumours.
About 25 patients will be treated in the trial and based on those results, further clinical trials may be done focusing on difficult to treat cancers such as melanoma and mesothelioma.
The trials are being run at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and the results of those trials can be used for Solbec to complete an Investigational New Drug application for the United States Food and Drug Administration.
The drug has already been applied to about 50 patients on compassionate grounds.
Solbec managing director Stephen Carter said that some valuable data had been reaped from those trials.
"However, it’s data that’s been drawn from people using the drug on compassionate grounds and not through the rigours of clinical trials," he said.
In separate animal studies, SBP002 has shown reduced tumour growth rates and eradication of melanoma and mesothelioma in mice.
The compound is drawn from the fruit of a weed known as Devil’s Apple – a relative of the tomato.
Its anticancer properties were first discovered by a Queensland researcher.
Stockman folklore held that the plant had healing properties when applied to skin cancers.
What Solbec did was take that a step further and applied it to internal cancers.
Analysts that follow the biotech sector seem to think that the news is positive.
From every 10,000 compounds that are dreamt up by researchers only about five to 10 of them ever make it to the human clinical trial stage.
A State One analyst said he thought Solbec had a very interesting product.
"It’s certainly gone beyond what most biotechs get to."
Independent analyst Peter Strachan said the Solbec announcement was a very positive step for the company.
"In about three months they should start getting some results through," he said.
The positive sentiment from the analyst community has not yet transferred itself through to Solbec’s share price.
The day after the announcement it was still hovering around the 15 cent to 16 cent mark.
Indeed, when Britannia Gold turned itself into Solbec back in May 2001 its share price was 15 cents.
There is also still a concern about the lingering vestiges of Solbec’s mining past.
It still holds one major mining tenement – Jervoise although it has been shedding its other holdings over the past few months.
Those sales reaped the company about $185,000 and the big payday from Jervoise, which is understood to be worth $1 million, could be close at hand with negotiations underway with a potential buyer.
