N4 Pharma Plc (LON:N4P), the specialist pharmaceutical company developing Nuvec®, a novel delivery system for cancer treatments, gene therapy and vaccines, has provided an update on its subsidiary, Nanogenics Limited.
Nanogenics has signed a contract to start the formulation and sequence selection work to prepare its ECP105 product for testing in pre-clinical studies at Kings College, London.
Nanogenics’ ECP105 product for the recovery of post-surgical treatment of Glaucoma contains a proprietary siRNA sequence to silence the fibrotic gene MRTF-B. Glaucoma patients who have failed to respond to medication need surgery to lower intraocular pressure which causes fibrosis at the surgery site. This fibrosis often leads to failure of the surgery and frequently patients have to undergo further surgery. ECP105 is intended for injection into the ocular cavity to switch off the gene responsible for the fibrosis. Unlike current off-label treatment using toxic chemotherapy drugs, ECP105 is intended for repeat use to prevent the need for further surgery.
The work involves creating and testing a novel formulation containing Nanogenics’ proprietary siRNA sequence to undertake a proof of concept in-vivo study, to demonstrate that a single dose of its Glaucoma surgery treatment ECP105 can match the anti-fibrotic effect of current post surgical treatment using Mitomycin C, but without the cytotoxic side effects seen with this approach.
Nigel Theobald, Chief Executive Officer of N4 Pharma commented:
“We are very excited for the potential of ECP105, which is a unique product for an unmet clinical need in the ophthalmology market. More than 75 million people worldwide are affected by Glaucoma and the total Glaucoma treatment market size in 2021 exceeded $5.5 billion and is growing. A novel product in this space alone represents a good opportunity for Nanogenics and importantly the antifibrotic siRNA sequence can also be used to investigate other fibrotic treatments for liver and lung fibrosis.”
