Can-Fite BioPharma Uses NIH-licensed Technology to Develop Anti-Tumor Drug

Can-Fite BioPharma, after quietly conducting several years of pre-clinical research, is about to begin Phase I trials for its new anti-tumor drug that could rival Amgen’s $1 Billion blockbuster Neupogen, used as adjunctive treatment for chemotherapy.

The Israeli startup, founded by patent attorney Dr. Ilan Cohn and cancer researcher Prof. Pnina Fishman, is now finalizing an investment round of $4.5 million from the Mediseed, BioCom and Azritech Israel-based venture capital groups. The proceeds will be used to complete pre-clinical trials and begin Phase I clinical trials in Europe and the US.

AFite, as Can-Fite’s drug is called, is a molecule that was included in a patent licensed from the NIH. The company discovered new therapeutic applications for AFite’s class of drugs, far removed from those originally envisaged.

“What makes me especially enthusiastic about AFite is that it can be administered to patients by oral delivery,” says Ilan Cohn, capping a list of the drug candidate’s virtues.

The molecule, which has a low molecular weight, has demonstrated high specificity towards tumor cells, arresting tumor growth without impacting on non-cancerous cells. AFite has a high therapeutic window and no noticeable toxicity in therapeutic doses.

Remarkably, AFite boosts the number of white blood cells and particularly neutrophils, reduced as a result of administration of chemotherapeutic drugs. It is the latter effect that makes AFite attractive for adjunctive therapy for chemotherapy patients. That market is today dominated by Amgen’s Neupogen which must be administered by injection.

AFite will first be tested for use in protecting cancer patients from nutropenia, which is the reduction of neutrophils following chemotherapy, but Cohn expects the drug will eventually be developed also as a stand-alone anti-cancer drug. The company expects to initiate clinical trials for this indication shortly after clinical trials begin for the anti-nutropenic effect. AFite appears to have a broad spectrum of anti-cancer efficacy, with colon and prostrate cancers likely to be the first targets.

Can-Fite’s Board of Directors and scientific advisory board comprise a number of world-leading oncology experts, among them Dr. Howard Soule of Cap CURE in California (the oncology fund founded by Michael Milliken) and Dr. Howard Ozer of the Oklahoma Medical Center.

Dr. Ilan Cohn is the senior partner at the Tel Aviv-based Reinhold Cohn patent attorney firm. Prof. Pnina Fishman has served as a researcher at the Felsenstein Medical Research Center of the Rabin Medical Center in Tel Aviv and is the former General Manager of Mor Research Application, a Contract Research Organization and technology licensing arm of the Kupat Holim Clalit (HMO).

Further details about Can-Fite BioPharma can be viewed at their Pharmalicensing profile here.

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