CDRD Ventures, the commercialization vehicle of The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), has announced the launch of a new spin-off company,
Sitka Biopharma is a biotechnology company developing a new bladder cancer treatment.
Sitka's technology combines a nanoparticulate drug delivery technology based on hyperbranched polyglycerols (HPG), with docetaxel, a well characterized chemotherapeutic, in a single proprietary formulation designed for intravesical instillation into the bladder.
The platform also has the potential to be combined with other drugs for a variety of therapeutic uses. This technology and its application were initially developed through a collaboration between the University of British Columbia (UBC) and CDRD, and further advanced toward a product candidate via CVI.
In preclinical studies, Sitka's candidate formulation has been demonstrated to significantly improve bladder tissue uptake when compared to the commercial docetaxel formulation. Further, in animal models of bladder cancer, the proprietary HPG-docetaxel formulation demonstrated superior efficacy over commercial docetaxel - providing a preclinical proof-of-concept.
CDRD Ventures president and CEO Natalie Dakers noted preclinical data strongly supports the potential of Sitka's polymer platform technology to address the absorption challenges of current intravesical treatments.
"Among the number of promising technologies being developed at CDRD and CVI, we are excited that Sitka's technology platform is now ready for further advancement towards clinical development and commercialization," Dakers added.
CDRD de-risked and added value to the Sitka polymer project by carrying out the drug development activities, including pK, ADME and toxicology studies to support preclinical proof of concept and selection of a lead candidate, filing patents, and securing funding to support these development activities.
