Phillips said that the drug candidate, PXS-5505, is performing very well at this stage, inhibiting 90% of the target enzyme with a good safety profile being well tolerated by patients. The study is seeking to recruit 24 patients with the results likely to be a key share price driver for the stock.
Late last year it was announced that an IND filed by the University of Rochester Medical Center was accepted by the FDA with that group to trial the drug in patients with liver cancer. It will be an interesting and meaningful study, with PXS-5505 to be given to patients as a first line therapy. Patients will also be receiving a PD-L1 inhibitor and a VEGF inhibitor. Of primary interest will be to see if the Pharmaxis drug compound can disrupt the tumour cross-linking to allow these new therapies to take better effect inside the tumour.
Researchers from the University of Rochester have undertaken preclinical studies with PXS-5505 that were presented at a scientific meeting in August last year. Phillips said that if the compound can be shown to work in liver cancer then there is very high chance of working in other tumours, presumably in particularly highly stromal (fibrotic) tumours.
Late last year Pharmaxis raised $9.8 million (at $0.105 per share). Karst Peak Capital has increased its stake from 11.3% to 12.3%. One of the reasons for the raise was due to an expected decrease in Bronchitol sales with cystic fibrosis patients staying at home due to the pandemic.
Pharmaxis is capitalised at $51 million with $21 million in cash at the end of last year. For the December quarter, cash receipts totalled $3.8 million with an operating cash outflow of $3.7 million.
Bioshares Recommendation: Speculative Buy Class A
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