The award was judged by an independent jury of international life sciences experts, who unanimously chose Patrys for the honour.
Patrys was recognised for advancing new anti-cancer molecules – natural human antibodies – directed at completely new pathways for killing cancer. These natural human antibodies offer the promise of increased potency coupled with greater safety compared to existing cancer treatments.
The Company currently has two anti-cancer product clinical programs.
The first, PAT-SM6, is currently being evaluated in a human clinical trial targeting patients with melanoma. The clinical trial’s main goal is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of PAT-SM6 in melanoma patients. Multiple secondary endpoints are aimed at measuring the anti-tumour activity of PAT-SM6. All results are expected to be finalised and reported by June 2011.
Patrys’ other clinical product is PAT-SC1, has already been evaluated for safety and efficacy in a human clinical trial involving gastric cancer patients. The results were encouraging, as patients treated with PAT-SC1 experienced a significant survival benefit compared to a historical control set of patients that received similar treatment but for the PAT-SC1 antibody. The product is now being converted to Patrys' recently developed large scale manufacturing technology in preparation for a second trial.
“The Asia Pacific markets have a large number of very successful and impressive early-stage biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. To be chosen as emerging company of the year is a tribute to our team of professionals who have worked very hard to get the Company where it is today,” commented Patrys’ Chief Executive Officer, Dan Devine.
Narayanan Suresh, Chief Editor, BioSpectrum added: “The editorial team at BioSpectrum have been tracking the growth of companies such as Patrys and we are confident that Patrys will go on to make many outstanding contributions for the benefit of humanity in the coming decades.”
The award was presented to Patrys’ CEO, Dan Devine, at an award ceremony in Singapore on March 16, 2011. Dr. Silviu Itescu, Chief Executive of Australia’s Mesoblast Limited, (ASX:MSB) a world-leader in stem cell product development, received the award for industry person of the year at the same function.
For further information, please contact:
Patrys Limited: Roger McPherson Chief Financial Officer P: +61 3 9670 3273 info@patrys.com tdonovan@bcg.com.au
Patrys Media and Investors: Rebecca Wilson (IR) Tom Donovan (Media) Buchan Consulting P: +61 3 9866 4722 rwilson@bcg.com.au
About Patrys Limited:
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Patrys (ASX: PAB) is focused on the development of natural human antibody therapies for cancer. Patrys has a deep pipeline of internal development candidates and additional products that are the subject of a collaboration agreement with a larger industry partner. More information can be found at www.patrys.com.
About PAT-SM6:
The natural human antibody PAT-SM6 has been shown to have potent anti-cancer properties in a large number of laboratory and animal studies. More specifically, Patrys has now screened PAT-SM6 against more than 200 tumours from individual patients with various cancers, and the product binds to over 90% of the tumours screened regardless of cancer type or patient age, gender or disease stage. With respect to melanoma, PAT-SM6 has shown particularly strong promise. Patrys has filed patent applications to cover the PAT-SM6 antibody molecule, disease target, and the mechanism of action.
About GRP78:
Patrys clinical candidate PAT-SM6 binds to a form of Glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), which is expressed on the surface of cancer cells but not detected on the surface of healthy cells. Once bound, the PAT-SM6/GRP78 complex is then internalised into cancer cells inducing apoptosis and cell death. The potential of GRP78 as a target for cancer therapy is supported by extensive third party literature that has reported several roles played by GRP78 with respect to promoting tumour proliferation, tumour survival, metastases and resistance to a wide variety of existing anti-cancer therapies. As a result, GRP78 expression has been correlated with an adverse prognosis in melanoma, breast, lung, gastric, hepatocellular and prostate cancer, and drug resistance in breast cancer. Given GRP78's reported roles with respect to several cancers, a molecule such as PAT-SM6 presents a promising anti-cancer treatment to the extent it interferes with the function of GRP78 in cancer.
About PAT-SC1:
PAT-SC1 is a natural human antibody that acts by binding to a special form of a protein, called CD55 that appears on the surface of gastric cancer cells but not on the surface of healthy cells, thereby permitting PAT-SC1 to kill the cancer cells while sparing the healthy cells. PAT-SC1 was evaluated in an investigator led human clinical trial, under which treated patients were dosed with PAT-SC1 48 hours prior to a surgical procedure that involved the removal of the primary tumour (surgical removal of the tumour is currently the standard treatment). Thirty-five PAT-SC1 treated gastric cancer patients showed a statistically significant increased survival benefit compared to a historic control group of 53 patients that received the same surgical treatment but who did not receive PAT-SC1. Additional published data shows that PAT-SC1 at this dose level was very safe and well tolerated by patients receiving the treatment. The referenced clinical results were compiled by an independent research firm.
About BioSpectrum Asia:
The Asia edition of BioSpectrum was launched 5 years ago to chronicle the growth of the Life Sciences industry in the Asia Pacific region. BioSpectrum is an integrated media platform with the content, gathered from all over Asia Pacific and important global information, delivered in print, digital and online formats, to reach out to the thousands of business leaders in more than 12 countries in Asia Pacific and a large community of business leaders in Europe and the U.S.
TOM DONOVAN Account Executive Buchan Consulting Business Strategy | Communication | Public Policy MELBOURNE: PHONE: +61 3 9866 4722 MOBILE: 0422 557 107 FAX: +61 3 9867 1716
