The good news is that Esperance Pharmaceuticals' first cancer treatment drug sailed through preclinical testing. The Baton Rouge-based biotech's EP-100 sought out and destroyed ovarian cancer cells transplanted in mice without harming normal cells.

 

The bad news? Well, there doesn't seem to be any.

 

"We are at that point, whereby we have now demonstrated that our drugs do actually seek and destroy cancer cells," said Esperance president Hector Alila, PhD. "We have proof of concept to support our clinical trials, and we now are actively preparing for our clinical trials later in the year. What that effectively means is that the company now is going to be a clinical stage company."

 

Alila said Esperance hopes to begin a Phase I clinical trial in a small number of ovarian cancer patients this month or next if all goes well.

 

Only a small percentage of drugs make it this far, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. For every 5,000 to 10,000 compounds screened, only 250 proceed to preclinical testing. Of those 250, only five will enter human clinical trials, and only one of those will win approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

 

The cost to bring a new drug to market is around $1 billion, according to Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

 

EP-100 is a targeted membrane-disrupting peptide and is designed to selectively

 

target luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, or LHRH receptors, which are overexpressed in a wide range of cancers.

 

EP-100 is one of several other drug candidates Esperance has in development. All have a unique targeting mechanism, binding specifically and exclusively to cancer cells that express the target receptors on their surfaces. The positively charged peptides disrupt the negatively charged membranes of the cancer cells, causing rapid cell death by lysis.

 

Alila is optimistic that EP-100 and Esperance's other drug candidates could change more effectively and safely treat many cancers, breast, testicular and prostate cancers among others. Many of the receptor expressing cancers have proven resistant to chemotherapy and radiation.

 

Esperance presented its preclinical research at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, held in April in Denver. The poster presentation was titled "Targeted Oncolytic Peptide for Treatment of Ovarian Cancers."

 

Poster presentations highlight the best and most exciting research in the field, said Jeremy Moore, a spokesman for the American Association for Cancer Research. Some 6,000 researchers, pharmaceutical companies, students and others present their findings at the global conference.

 

Moore said it's not known how many of the 6,000 abstracts will actually result in a new treatment.

 

Cancer treatment is a multidisciplinary field, with research involving everything from food to drugs to behavioral modification, he added. However, it's not unreasonable to say that the knowledge from 100 abstracts might be used in creating a new treatment.

 

Alila said Esperance plans to publish its results, in one of AACR's publications.

 

One of the most important results of the research is that EP-100 does not harm normal cells, according to Carola Leuschner, PhD., director of Biology for Esperance and lead author of the study.

 

Esperance believes that its novel approach may lead to an improved safety profile for its drugs compared to existing treatments, such as radiation or chemotherapy, Leuscher said in a prepared statement.

 

In the in vivo studies, the tumors shrunk in mice that received even very low doses of EP-100, 0.2 mg/kg of body weight. PET imaging revealed that tumors treated with EP-100 became necrotic, lacking viable tumor cells after treatment. EP-100 was well tolerated in all treated groups.

 

Esperance was founded on patented technology discovered by scientists at Louisiana State University. The founding investors include Louisiana Fund I, Themelios Venture Partners and Research Corporation Technologies. Additional investors include Louisiana Technology Fund and private investors.

 

Joseph F. Lovett, Esperance board chairman, said the company's success validates the strategy proposed three or four years ago.

 

Under that plan, venture capital firm Louisiana Fund 1 became the lead investor in Esperance, said Lovett, who is also the fund's managing director. Esperance then licensed the technology from Louisiana State University, and Louisiana Fund 1 brought in significant out-of-state investment dollars and an experienced biotech manager, Alila, to shepherd Esperance's drugs through the testing process.

 

Alila said the successful preclinical trials were good for Esperance, for LSU, for Louisiana and its emerging biotech industry.

 

The preclinical work is important for supporting further research, because the technology that made EP-100 possible came from LSU, Alila said. In addition, all of the work was performed by Esperance employees, all of whom were hired locally.

 

If a biotech company can draw these types of employees from the local talent base, that's also good for Louisiana, Alila said.