The Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX: SPL) share price is pushing higher on Monday.
In morning trade the dendrimer products developer's shares are up 2% to $1.22 following an announcement.
What did Starpharma announce?
This morning Starpharma announced that pharma giant AstraZeneca has commenced a phase 1 clinical trial of AZD0466 and the first patient has been successfully dosed.
According to the release, the trial will recruit patients with a range of cancers and will be conducted at up to five US sites.
The development of AZD0466 is being progressed under a multi-product license. This means Starpharma is eligible to receive development, launch, and sales milestones of up to US$124 million. Furthermore, it will receive tiered royalties on net sales if the product reaches that stage.
Milestone payment.
The release advises that the first dose of AZD0466 administered in the phase 1 trial has triggered a milestone payment to Starpharma of US$3 million.
This could be the first of many based on AstraZeneca's comments. It has described AZD0466 as having the potential to be a best-in-class agent in this field with a broad opportunity in solid and haematological tumours (blood cancers) due to its ability to target both Bcl2 and Bcl/xL1.
Bcl2 is a clinically validated oncology target. The Bcl2 inhibitor, venetoclax, was approved by the US FDA in 2016 and has estimated peak global sales projected to be between US$2 billion to US$3 billion.
Starpharma CEO, Dr Jackie Fairley, said: "It is really exciting to achieve this important milestone both for our collaboration with AstraZeneca and for Starpharma's DEP platform."
"This is our first partnered DEP product to enter the clinic, alongside our three internal DEP products, DEP docetaxel, DEP cabazitaxel and DEP irinotecan. AZD0466 is a great illustration of the benefits that can be created for novel agents using Starpharma's DEP platform and we look forward to further updates as the trial progresses," she added.
