N4 Pharma upbeat on latest tumour suppression study data

The AIM-traded firm had said on 13 June that the Medicines Discovery Catapult study showed “clear tumour suppression” with 10ug of the TNF-alpha loaded onto its ‘Nuvec’ delivery platform, which was a lower dose than used in the earlier studies.

It said that biochemical analysis of blood and tissue samples was now complete, with testing confirming that treatment with 10ug TNF-alpha loaded onto Nuvec resulted in an increase in circulating plasma TNF-alpha levels.

Analysis also indicated that tissues including the liver and the tumour cells may have been responsible for the transfection with the TNF plasmid and subsequent release of TNF-alpha into the circulation to suppress the tumour.

The company said the study provided further data to better understand the mechanism that produced the tumour suppression.

It said the data indicated the most appropriate use of Nuvec in the oncology field would likely be to combine it with one or more nucleic acids alongside a targeting ligand, to allow specific cancer cells to be targeted.

“We continue to make good progress in understanding how Nuvec can be used in the oncology space and this work, combined with the potential opening up of the siRNA market and the early data coming from UQ on their oral work, gives us a lot of material to further focus our route to commercial success,” said chief executive officer Nigel Theobald.

“We will provide a further update of this along with our interim results.”

At 1248 BST, shares in N4 Pharma were up 8.94% at 2.56p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.