OncoLize
Technology
How ChemoGell™ Works
1
Injection
ChemoGell™ is injected directly into the tumorusing a thin needle, catheter or endoscope.
Localized treatment starts exactly where it is needed.
2
Depot Formation
Within seconds, the liquid transforms into a soft hydrogel depot that remains inside the tumor.
The thermo-responsive hydrogel forms a stable local drug reservoir.
3
Sustained Drug Release
The depot gradually releases the drugover hours, days or weeks.
Maintaining high local drug concentrations while reducing drug loss.
4
Localized Therapy
The drug remains concentrated inside the tumor, with minimal systemic exposure.
- Up to 170× higherdrug concentration in the tumor
- Up to 1,000× lowerexposure outside the target tissue
- Up to 70–80× lowertotal drug dose required
5
Clinical Benefit
Localized delivery aims to improve treatment while reducing systemic toxicity.
- Higher local efficacy
- Fewer side effects
- Better preservation of healthy tissue and immune function
- Potentially faster recovery
The Science Behind ChemoGell™
We use polymer-based hydrogel technology that makes new formulation development simple, scalable and affordable.
The ChemoGellTM platform is a thermo-responsive hydrogel and consists of bio-erodible polymers.
Upon injection, the liquid formulation rapidly forms a localized drug depot ‘in situ – in seconds’.
The depot releases the loaded oncology drugs at very high concentrations inside the tumor mass, impossible to achieve by other methods of drug delivery.
The polymers we use are of-the-shelf, pharma grade, and affordable... just like the drugs we choose to work with.
They are safe, easy to scale-up and easy to formulate with very different types of drugs:
- small molecule drugs, peptides
- from poorly soluble to highly soluble
- with Molecular weights from 100D to 5kD
- and loading from 0.01% up to 5% drug weight/volume
OncoLize develops the ChemoGellTM platform for various types of solid tumor diseases.
Our primary focus on Pancreatic Cancer, one of the most difficult to treat and deadly tumor diseases.
We have selected a range of well-known oncology drugs, both generic and novel. Animal studies with Gemcitabine, Paclitaxel and Cis-Platinum and a proprietary peptide successfully demonstrated the broad potential of the ChemoGellTM platform and the safety in use.
The ChemoGellTM formulations are easily injected through long, thin needles (up to 25G) or catheters (5 French, up to 1.5 meter) in any location.
Our formula has several base patents granted in the USA, China and Japan and in final approval in the EU, while we prepare for new patents in the coming years.
Another unique feature is that making of the product formulation is basically no more than standard mixing and compounding of the drugs and the excipients in an aqueous solvent.
Any CMO or Hospital Pharmacy with capacity to process sterile injectables can be commissioned to produce the products under licenses.
The ChemoGellTM depots are imageable on CT and Ultra Sound, which will benefit image-guided delivery through endoscopes and stereo-tactic delivery.
Together with our partners we develop a pipeline of products for some of the most deadly tumor diseases.
Technology licenses for external development by partners can be made available for selected Product-Market Combinations.
Why we do this?
We develop three core benefits into all OncoLize products compared to the current standard of care products:
- Much better at eradicating the tumor
- with far less side-effects
- and triple A: Accessible and Affordable for All
The depot product consists of the ChemoGellTM-platform, with or without standard solution buffers, and with drugs well-known to oncology.
Many tumors in advanced economies are already diagnosed and biopted when they are still in a local or regional phase of development. So delivering the treatment locally is vital.
We currently focus on off-patent Chemo-drugs for good reasons. These drugs are very effective to eradicate most tumor cells, are fully available, and affordable. At sufficiently high doses they are very effective in their own right.
Unfortunately, in circulation through normal infusion or through pills several major limitations arise:
1) The safe levels of Chemo-toxic drugs for the patient are often too low to kill all mutating tumor cells, basically selecting the most resistant ones to fill up the empty spaces and grow on...
2) In circulation, these toxic drugs can accumulate in different organs and tissues, rather than concentrating inside the tumor mass. leading to serious to severe side-effects due to that same toxic effect on organs and affecting the vital immune systems throughout the body.
3) The patient's Immune- and Energy systems are an crucial factor in battling cancer cells, eradicating a tumor or preventing metastasizing cells to spread. Yet the average age of contracting cancer at first diagnosis is often above 60 years of age, with less vital immune-, hormonal and metabolic systems. Circulating anti-cancer drugs through infusion or pills often affects these systems, debilitating the natural ability and stamina to support the battle.
(By the way, these limitations are often just as applicable to the most modern and targeted drugs being developed today, at much higher costs to patients and societies...)
By localizing the release of these drugs inside the tumor, and releasing it gradually over days to weeks, we offer increased eradication without harming vital organs or suppressing the essential immune- or energy systems.
ChemoGellTM-drug depots will often be combined with other forms of treatment:
- As add-on to existing treatments
- As treatment before or after surgery
- To boost the effect of novel Immuno-oncology drugs without negative impact on the immune system itself
- With radio-sensitizers for advanced radio-therapy
What do we do different...
We encapsulate well-known, off-patent and affordable drugs inside the ChemoGellTM nanoparticles.
Clinicians inject the liquid formulation through a thin needle, endoscope or a catheter straight into the tumor.
Within a few seconds, the injected liquid forms a soft, rubber-like drug depot that stays in place.
That is how we localize the drug load to the tumor, to prevent it from spreading at toxic levels to organs, the immune systems and surrounding healthy tissues.
Over time, being from hours to days to weeks, the depot gradually degrades layer by layer, releasing the entrapped drugs slowly but surely.
Based on our small animal models for Pancreatic Cancer we offer the following benefits over infusion or pills:
- the level of the drug inside the target tissue is 70 - 170x higher than ever could be achieved through pills or injections into blood veins
- the level of drug outside the target tissue is up to 1000x lower than inside the target tissue, often not measurable anymore within a day, while locally present for days to a week.
- The required total drug-load is up to 70-80x less than via the other routes of administration.
In this way, surgeons and oncologists can deliver the required drug dose to the tumor safely, and keep it there for a fixed period of time. If they can approach it with a long, thin needle or catheter, we can make the product.
Even better, the Hospital Pharmacy can make it overnight with standard equipment and simple mixing and stirring. This allows for personalized medicine dosing and alternative dosing regimes, both in clinical trials and in approved products.
But can we treat metastisized tumors in this way?
Yes and no…
- As long as the doctors can localize the metastasized tumor and approach it with a needle or catheter, they can deliver our drug depot to reduce symptoms and blockages by the tumor mass.
- Because we have localized the drug to do its work inside the tumor(s), we do not deliver sufficient drug to distant tumors which have not been identified yet or injected…
- However, preliminary data suggests that the eradication of the targeted tumors also initiates a immune reaction which may have effect on distant tumors as well....
