We develop three core benefits into all OncoLize products compared to the current standard of care products:
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Much better at eradicating the tumor
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…with far less side-effects
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… and triple A: Accessible and Affordable for All
The depot product consists of the OCL-platform, with or without standard solution buffers, and with drugs well-known to oncology.
Most tumors in advanced economies are already diagnosed and biopted when they are still in a local or regional phase of development. So delivering the treatment locally is vital in the early approach.
We focus on off-patent Chemo-drugs. These are very effective to eradicate most tumor cells, are fully available, and affordable. At sufficiently high doses they are very effective on their own. But if circulated as is done to date, they can also cause serious side-effects due to that same toxic effect on organs and the vital immune systems throughout the body.
By localizing the release of the drugs inside the tumor, and releasing it gradually over 1 to 3 weeks, we offer increased eradication without harming vital organs or suppressing the immune systems.
OCL-depots will often be combined with other forms of treatment:
- As treatment before or after surgery
- To boost the effect of novel Immuno-oncology drugs without negative impact on the immune system itself
- With radio-sensitizers for advanced radio-therapy
What do we do different…
We encapsulate these drugs inside the OCL-nanoparticles. Then, doctors can inject the liquid formulation through a thin needle or a catheter straight into the tumor. Within seconds, the injected liquid forms a soft, rubber-like macro-gel that stays in place. That is how we localize the drug load to the tumor, to prevent it from spreading at toxic levels to organs, the immune systems and surrounding healthy tissues.
Over time, being from days to multiple weeks (as we design it) the depot gradually degrades layer by layer, releasing the entrapped drugs slowly but surely.
In previous runs we have measured the following benefits in various pre-clinical models of other applications:
- the level of the drug inside the target tissue is 10 to 100x higher than ever could be achieved through pills, transdermal patches or injections into blood veins
- the level of drug outside the target tissue is up to 1000x lower than inside the target tissue, often not measurable anymore within a day, while locally present for weeks on end
- The required total drug-load was up to 300x less than via the other routes of administration
In this way, surgeons and oncologists can deliver the required drug dose to the tumor safely, and keep it there for a fixed period of time. If they can approach it with a long, thin needle or catheter, we can make the product.
Even better, the Hospital Pharmacy can make it overnight with standard equipment and simple mixing and stirring. This allows for personalized medicine dosing and alternative dosing regimes, both in clinical trials and in approved products. Making the formulation is that simple…
But can we treat metastisized tumors in this way?
Yes and no…
- As long as the doctor can localize the metastisized tumor and approach it with a needle or catheter, he can deliver our drug depot.
- Because we have localized the drug to do its work inside the tumor(s), we do not deliver sufficient drug to distant tumors which have not been identified yet or injected…
- Some evidence suggests we can deliver lower amounts of drugs into the blood stream from sub-cutaneous depots that may help in suppressing the spread of tumor cells leaving the primary tumor