3rd Jul 2019 12:35
(Alliance News) - Midatech Pharma PLC on Wednesday said two higher dose levels have been added to its study of brain tumour drug MTX110 as it has been well tolerated.
Shares in the oncology and rare-disease focused drug developer were up 7.3% at 5.52 pence each in afternoon trade.
MTX110 is being developed as a treatment for childhood brain cancers. This includes the rare and very aggressive cancer diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a fatal and inoperable brain stem tumour with an average life expectancy of just 7 to 9 months.
An initial study of MTX110 in patients with DIPG started in may 2018 and is a combined phase 1 safety and phase 2 efficacy programme. Phase 1 was originally designed with five dose levels, but has been well tolerated so far and so another two dose levels have now been added.
This extra component is due to complete in the third quarter of 2019. Given the progress in phase 1, the phase 2 recommended dose has been set at the upper dose from the phase 1 component and a small cohort of three patients will be treated. These patients are then expected to join the phase 2 component - due to begin in the third or fourth quarter of 2019 once confirmation is obtained from the US Food & Drug Administration.
Midatech Chief Executive Craig Cook said: "We are delighted to be able to give this update on how the MTX110 programme is progressing. The patients have reacted very well from a safety perspective to MTX110 to date and we hope to advance to the phase 2 component later this year and further evaluate MTX110 as a very promising therapy for DIPG, for which there are no effective treatments. We look forward to providing further updates as the development programme progresses."
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