Theralase Technologies (TSX: V.TLT, Stock Forum) hit another home run when the company announced today that research on its anti-cancer technology platform involving its lead Photo Dynamic Compound (“PDC”) TLD-1433 had shown that it has considerable less skin toxicity than the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approved PDC Photofrin®.
According to the news release, Photofrin®, has been reported to induce skin sensitivity in patient's treated with the PDC when said patients came in contact with sunlight or even bright lights. Therefore patients subjected to this PDC must strictly avoid exposure of skin and eyes to direct sunlight or bright indoor lighting for at least 30 days post treatment.
Some patients may even remain photosensitive after Photofrin®-based treatments for up to 90 days or more, forcing them to stay indoors during this time period to avoid potential skin damage.
Testing, which incorporated a mouse model and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (“ICP-MS”), measured levels of TLD-1433 in the skin following systemic administration (worst case scenario). Researchers then used previously published mathematical models to compare skin sensitivity TLD-1433 treatments to Photofrin®.
Results showed that TLD-1433 produced 10 million times less Reactive Oxygen Species (“ROS”) than Photofrin®, providing a considerably higher safety margin to light sensitivity which would allow patients to go back out into the sun within days and not months.
The company intends to commence clinical evaluation of TLD-1433 in Non Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (“NMIBC”) in mid 2015.
Company President and CEO, Roger Dumoulin-White, commented, “Theralase's ongoing research into the destruction of cancer with our unique patented and patent pending PDT ACT continues to provide strong data supporting both its safety and efficacy in the destruction of this deadly disease.”
Then he summed up, “We remain confident in the safety, tolerability and efficacy of our technology in the destruction of cancer and look forward to proving our results clinically in the destruction of NMIBC in humans in mid 2015.”
Theralase Technologies was in the news recently when the Toronto-based company announced two days ago that it had been ranked in the 2015 TSX Venture Exchange 50(tm).
Shares climbed 12.24% on the news to $0.55 per share.
Currently there are 86.2m outstanding shares with a market cap of $47.4 million.