The Company is developing a targeted radiopharmaceutical cancer treatment called Oncocidia. This innovative treatment involves extending the already successful use of Iodine-131 in treating thyroid cancer to treat solid cancers (primary and metastatic) elsewhere in the body.
Iodine-131 is used to label the necrosis avid agent hypericin. Hypericin targets necrosis in a tumour and carries the therapeutic agent Iodine-131 to the tumour, where it is able to kill any remaining tumour cells by localized, short range (2-3mm) beta irradiation.
Oncocidia is administered in micro-dose quantities, minimizing chemotoxicities.
Extensive programs of in vitro and in vivo research have been undertaken and published, and a clinical standard formulation of the compound has been developed.
Oncocidia Limited was set up to take this treatment into clinical trials, with funding provided by London based technology commercialization company CetroMed Limited.
The Company is also continuing to supplement the clinical trial programme with further laboratory research led by Professor Yicheng Ni at KU Leuven.
Background
Oncocidia is the result of more than 15 years research conducted by the team of Professor Yicheng Ni, Head of the Theragnostic Laboratory at KU Leuven University, Belgium.
Along with its inventor, Oncocidia has been the subject of prestigious scientific awards and honours. The proposed treatment has demonstrated efficacy in animals, with the results published extensively.
Oncocidia in the context of current cancer research
Cancer drug development, historically based on the three pillars of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, is now benefiting from the application of highly advanced science - especially immuno-oncology, which seeks to fight cancers by stimulating the body’s natural immune system.
By contrast Oncocidia is based on relatively straightforward and well-understood principles: a necrotic mass is created in the tumour and a radioactive dose locates the necrosis in the tumour and irradiates what remains of it.