Grant: Proof of Principle Program - Phase II

Bladder cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, the fourth most prevalent cancer in Canada in men, twelfth in women, and has an overall mortality rate of 20 percent. It has the highest lifetime treatment cost per patient of any cancer and yet despite the drivers of cost, high mortality and morbidity, no new therapies have emerged in the past few decades with numerous clinical trials showing no improvement over mitomycin C and Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), the current standard of care. Microtubules are one of the most successful targets in cancer therapy and the recent phase I trial of intravesical docetaxel for the treatment of nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer, refractory to BCG, has shown this to be a promising agent. However, conventional formulations are maintained in the bladder for only two hours and drug exposure rarely lasts beyond the first voiding of urine, resulting in low drug uptake into bladder tissues. There is a clear unmet need for formulations that improve the residence time and penetration of intravesical agents. We have developed a novel polymeric drug delivery platform for the intravesical delivery of docetaxel employing Hyperbranched Polyglycerol (HPG) drug delivery technology. It has demonstrated superior efficacy in proof of concept studies over the commercial Taxotere formulation and provides enhanced drug retention and tissue penetration characteristics in in vivo and ex vivo studies. The aim of this project is to complete early stage preclinical development of a novel therapy for bladder cancer enabling our funding partner, CDRD Ventures Inc. (CVI) to create a private company to move the technology towards clinical studies. A Canadian spinoff company translating UBC and CDRD IP will improve the health of Canadians and others worldwide, while bringing further international recognition and investment to both Canadian innovation and the Canadian biotechnology industry.