Defymed and GlioCure initiate a collaboration in the field of solid tumors without therapeutic options
Strasbourg and Angers - Defymed, a Strasbourg-based medical technology company, and GlioCure, a neuro-oncology drug development company based in Angers, France, have set themselves the joint goal of exploring a new therapeutic approach for solid tumors that have no therapeutic option or that are resistant to standard treatments due to the overexpression of the TUBB3 protein.
TUBB3 is a constitutive molecule of microtubules, overexpressed in most brain tumors, but also in some other peripheral solid cancers such as triple-negative breast cancer, for which it is a marker of resistance to standard treatments and predisposition to the development of brain metastases.
Among primary brain tumors, high-grade glioblastoma and more particularly glioblastomas constitute the most frequent and aggressive tumor family. Despite the small number of cases, the severity of the symptoms makes it the second most common cause of cancer death for the young adults and the cancer with the highest socio-economic impact per patient
However, the complexity and heterogeneity of glioblastoma have not allowed the emergence of therapeutic innovations in recent years, and its management has remained nearly unchanged for almost twenty years.
Aware of the issues at stake, Defymed and GlioCure have therefore initiated an R&D partnership whose ambition is to provide an innovative therapeutic solution associating improved treatment efficacy and quality of life for glioblastoma patients. This objective can be achieved by combining the two paradigm changing approaches developed by Defymed and GlioCure. Patient weel-being being the major challenge for both partners, the expected results of the scientific partnership give new hope for an effective treatment for patients and their families.
“This partnership is an opportunity for Defymed to meet our primary objective of improving the quality of life of as many patients as possible, focusing here on those suffering from glioblastoma for whom ExOlin® combined with the peptide GC01, developed by GlioCure, would represent a hope for a more effective therapy".
Dr Séverine Sigrist, President of Defymed
“Our drug candidate GC01 blocks cell division in a tumor cell-specific manner by inhibiting the polymerization of TUBB3. It has already demonstrated its activity in vivo on several glioblastoma models and we believe that its administration via ExOlin® will enhance its efficacy through prolongated delivery, while ultimately limiting the need for hospitalization for patients."
Louis-Marie Bachelot, CEO of GlioCure
About Defymed
Defymed is a medical technology company founded in March 2011 in Strasbourg, specialized in the development and marketing of innovative implantable medical devices. These enable the delivery of therapeutic compounds by physiological route. The company, directed by Séverine Sigrist, has 14 internal employees and more than 30 external employees worldwide. Defymed initially focused on an application for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. The first product developed is MailPan®, an implantable bioartificial pancreas designed to restore normal insulin production in type 1 diabetics. The second product developed by Defymed is ExOlin®, a medical device for the physiological delivery of insulin. Defymed is now interested in using its know-how to improve the treatment of other pathologies such as cancer (glioblastoma…) or hemophilia. Since its creation in 2011, the medtech Defymed has raised more than €10M from public and private funding.
For more information: defymed.com
About GlioCure:
GlioCure is a drug development company specialized in neuro-oncology that aims to give hope to patients with brain tumors.
Since the end of 2016, GlioCure has acquired the operational capabilities and gathered all the skills and know-how in translational research and pharmaceutical sciences to identify, select and develop new molecules of interest in neuro-oncology until the authorization of the first clinical trials. In particular, GlioCure has initiated the development of GC01, a best-in-class anti-tumor peptide, benefiting from more than 10 years of academic research, for which the company has exclusive worldwide rights. GC01 is currently in late non-regulatory preclinical development for the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive brain tumor.
For more information: gliocure.com
Press contacts:
Manuel Pires – m.pires@defymed.com / 03 67 18 17 19
Louis-Marie Bachelot – lm.bachelot@gliocure.com / 06 14 03 38 26