Therapy involves patients with colorectal cancer at 20 medical centres

XBiotech has announced the enrolment of the first patient in a multicentre, randomised clinical study for Natrunix. The treatment will be analysed in combination with trifluridine and tipiracil for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

The clinical study for XBiotech’s candidate cancer treatment is being funded by the French National Cancer Institute (INCA).

Subjects receiving the experimental therapy have previously failed earlier treatment with oxaliplatin, irinotecan and fluoropyrimidine. Meanwhile, participants are randomised to receive Natrunix plus trifluridine/tipiracil chemotherapy or placebo plus the chemotherapy. The research is designed to seamlessly proceed through phase 3 development based on achievement of certain efficacy milestones in the phase 1 and phase 2 portions.

Natrunix is a therapeutic monoclonal antibody discovered, manufactured and developed by XBiotech. The antibody blocks the activity of substance produced by tumours and inflammatory cells that stimulates new blood vessel formation and breaks down connective tissue at the site of the tumour, allowing them to grow and spread.

Furthermore, the same substance also activates blood vessels, making them sticky to enhance migration of circulating tumour cells to new sites of metastasis. Natrunix potently blocks the action of the substance – known as IL-1 – which is also produced in response to chemotherapy.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Europe and the US, with the American Cancer Society’s estimating over 151,000 new cases and over 52,000 deaths annually in the United States alone.