TK Signal Ltd. yesterday announced that it plans to begin a preliminary clinical trial to test the effectiveness of its Phenol Dopam drug for the treatment of lymphoma and melanoma cancers. The drug is usually used to treat hypertension in patients in intensive care wards. Studies have shown that it can also treat cancer. The company bought the rights to the drug six months ago.
The first trial will be an ex-vivo trial conducted on cancerous tissue taken from patients. Since the tissue will be taken from patients, the trial is considered part of human clinical trials. If the drug is shown to be a success, by killing cancer cells cultured in the laboratory, TK Signal will move onto trials involving cancer patients.
Phenol Dopam is a new product for TK Signal, whose previous flagship product has suffered from delays. The company decided to buy a product to serve as its flagship.
Hadasit Bio Holdings Ltd. (TASE:HDST) is the controlling shareholder in TK Signal. Hadasit Bio chairman Dr. Raphael Hofstein said, "TK Signal started out developing a diagnostic marker that more accurately targets cancer tissue. We tested the marker against ten criteria in trial that we conducted, and it successfully passed nine criteria. The results were less than hoped for in only marker. This was enough for the company to decide to return the product to the laboratory for further improvement.
Two years ago, TK Signal raised $1.3 million from investors in London at a company value of $10 million as part of preliminary financing round ahead of an IPO on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The company shelved the IPO following the less than successful trial result.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 14, 2008
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