NZ patients test anti-cancer compound

NZ patients test anti-cancer compound

Human trials will determine whether this anti-cancer drug can be administered intravenously. Picture / amos chapple.

Human trials on a new anti-cancer drug - which targets the core of a cancerous tumour - began at Waikato Hospital yesterday.

Ten New Zealanders will take part in testing of the drug PR104 with 10 others in Melbourne and a further 10 in California.

The New Zealand patients have been selected by Waikato Hospital consultant oncologist Dr Michael Jameson.

The hospital was chosen because of Dr Jameson's close association with the two New Zealand scientists who pioneered the 20-year research project into the drug.

Dr Jameson said there were risks involved in testing a new anti-cancer compound, and the patients in the trial were brave people.

Auckland professors Bill Denning and Bill Wilson are the brains behind the drug.

The trial is supported by $12.7 million in venture capital raised by Proacta Inc, a company formed by Auckland University and Stanford University in the San Francisco Bay area of California.

Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard said the trial signalled an important new direction for the country's biotechnology industry.

The drug's development was at such an advanced stage that it proved the country was at the leading edge of cancer research, and it also proved New Zealand possessed some "wonderful minds", Mr Mallard said.

If the drug shows encouraging signs over the next year, there will be two more trials before its possible global release within the next five years. Professors Denny and Wilson said trials on mice began last year and results were encouraging.

Unlike present treatments, Professor Denny said the new drug did not "activate" until it reached certain enzymes inside the tumour, thereby localising its effect on the human body.

Dr Jameson said the primary objective of the trial was to safely administer the drug intravenously to the patients.