Product Strategy
Currently, there are many very potent chemotherapeutic agents. What is missing is the ability to deliver these agents selectively to the cancer cells. Nanoparticles have properties that are not available from either molecular or macroscopic agents that when linked with targeting technology, such as monoclonal antibodies or peptides can selectively target malignant tumors, resulting in:
- Higher affinity and specificity,
- Lower effective dose.
- Fewer unpleasant side effects.
- Less likelihood of the cancer cell developing resistance to the drug therapy, providing greater efficacy and long term treatment option.
The NanoVector breakthrough plant virus nanoparticle drug delivery system will be used as a platform to develop a family of targeted delivery, encapsulated cytotoxic drugs that are currently non cell-selective for the $20B/yr North America breast and colon/rectal cancer markets. Effective targeting of chemotherapy has been highly sought after, because non-targeted chemotherapy causes considerable destruction of normal cells and severe adverse reactions. With targeting, anti-cancer agents can concentrate in a cancer cell resulting in extremely high efficacy. When this enhanced efficacy is accompanied by reduced uptake of anti-cancer agent by healthy cells, toxicity to normal cells is diminished, minimizing unpleasant side effects. |
