Tiltan Pharma Ltd. has raised $1.5 million for the completion of its on-going Phase II clinical study of TL-118, an anti-angiogenic therapy for treating metastatic pancreatic cancer. The company did not disclose details about the investors.
The Jerusalem-based start-up said that half of the patients have already been enrolled in the Phase II clinical trial that will include 80 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic pancreatic cancer and have have yet to start chemotherapy. The trial includes two treatment groups of 40 subjects each. The control group is allocated to standard chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, and the treatment group will receive TL-118 in addition to standard-of-care chemotherapy.
The study is ongoing in seven major Israeli oncology centers: Sheba Medical Center (Tel Hashomer), Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), Hadassah Medical Center, Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center, Rambam Medical Center, Soroka Medical Center and Hilel-Yaffe Medical Center and two in the US: Emory University Hospital, Atlanta Georgia, and White Plains New-York Medical Center.
Tiltan COO Dr. Dan Goldstaub said, "We have just completed the enrollment of half of the patients in our Phase II anti-angiogenic therapy for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer and hope to expedite recruitment of the remaining 40 patients with these additional funds. So far there were no safety or tolerability issues with the product and the accumulated data seems promising. We plan to complete enrollment within a year and hope to be able to present results by mid-2015."
TL-118 was initially tested in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, while the Phase I human clinical trial was conducted in Sheba Medical Center. 30 cancer patients were enrolled in the trial and the therapy was found to be safe and tolerable for the treatment of cancer patients and caused mostly minor clinically significant adverse reactions.
Tiltan Pharma is one of the portfolio companies of Integra Holdings, a biopharmaceutical holding company founded by Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 5, 2014
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