Benitec Biopharma last week announced that a collaborator generated preclinical data showing that the company’s expressed RNAi technology can be used to boost survival in a orthotopic mouse model of non-small cell lung cancer.
The work, which was conducted by the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia of the University of South Wales, indicated that animals treated with Benitec’s Tribetarna, which targets the beta III tubulin gene, and chemotherapy survived “significantly” longer than those receiving chemotherapy alone.
After sixty days, 50 percent of the mice treated with Benitec’s drug were alive, versus 14 percent in the chemotherapy-only group.
Benitec said it is currently in discussions with a Ground Zero Pharmaceuticals, a US-based clinical research organization, about initiating discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration to test Tribetarna in humans.