MDRNA said last week that it has extended and expanded its collaboration with the Vancouver Prostate Centre to discover and develop RNAi-based drugs for bladder cancer.
The company said it first began working with VPC in 2008 to investigate the use of its DiLA2 delivery platform and UsiRNA molecules in one of the center's bladder cancer models.
"In light of current results demonstrating efficient delivery and high potency for RNAi, the program will expand to evaluate UsiRNAs targeting other critical pathways in cancer, the impact on tumor biology, tumor growth, and survival rates," MDRNA said.
Earlier this year, MDRNA announced that it had added bladder cancer to its formal pipeline after its collaboration with VPC had yielded positive results in a rodent model of bladder cancer (see RNAi News, 8/6/2009).
MDRNA has said that it could file an investigational new drug application to begin human trials of the bladder cancer therapy next year.