Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 25, 2015 / B3C newswire / -- Oncodrone, the anti-cancer company based in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, has been granted a € 2,5 million Eurostars grant for the development of its lead drug OCD155 for treatment of prostate cancer.
The Eurostars grant will enable the Oncodrone to progress OCD155 through pre-clinical development towards clinical trials and to further unravel the mechanism-of-action. This will be done in a Dutch-Danish-German-Swiss consortium, including the Dutch partners Radboud UMC and Leiden UMC.
Oncodrone’s lead product OCD155 halts tumor progression by blocking Epethelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in cancers. OCD155 has shown to be effective in in-vivo laboratory experiments to reduce the ability of tumors to spread, reduce the tumor burden and treat advanced stages of disease. Once proven to be safe to use, the drug can be tested in patients with metastasized carcinoma’s including prostate, breast, lung and pancreatic cancer.
The successful grant application was written by Catalyze, the Amsterdam based management consultancy company. Catalyze was also instrumental to building the consortium.
Henk Viëtor, CEO of Oncodrone comments: “I’m delighted about this crucial grant, that allows us to further develop our novel approach to treating prostate cancer towards testing in humans.”
About Eurostars
Eurostars supports international innovative projects led by research and development- performing small- and medium-sized enterprises (R&D-performing SMEs). Eurostars has been developed to stimulate international cooperation.
Eurostars is a joint programme between EUREKA and the European Commission, co-funded from the national budgets of 34 Eurostars Participating States and Partner Countries and by the European Union through Horizon 2020. In the 2014-2020 period it has a total public budget of €1.14 billion.
About Oncodrone
Oncodrone was founded in 2013 by Prof. Jack Schalken, international key opinion leader in the field of prostate cancer at Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen (RUMC) to develop new treatments for prostate cancer. Oncodrone has discovered a potential new drug, OCD155, adopting a new approach to fight advanced prostate cancer, based on blocking the processes preceding cancer proliferation known as Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal-Transition (EMT).
In the EMT process epithelial cells lose their cell-cell adhesion and develop into cancer cells with aggressive properties. Consequently, cancer cells can evade the original tumor into blood and lymphatic vessels, and colonize other tissues. By blocking EMT, the cancer cell is prevented from gaining invasive and malignant properties and becomes less aggressive. The EMT process is not only central in prostate cancer, but also in various other types of epithelial cancers including breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreas cancer, skin cancer, and bladder cancer.
Shareholders of Oncodrone are the founder, Nijmegen University, Specs and Amsterdam based DDF Ventures.
Contact
Dr. Henk Viëtor
CEO
Oncodrone
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+31 35 6954050
www.oncodrone.com