By Kim Coghill

Washington Editor

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Inex Pharmaceuticals Corp. signed a deal to license its drug delivery technology to GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) to make targeted cancer drugs.

The products will be developed using London-based GSK¿s camptothecin compound topotecan hydrochloride, currently marketed by GSK as Hycamtin, a treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer and recurrent small-cell lung cancer. Last year, worldwide sales of Hycamtin totaled about $139 million.

The agreement focuses on the Transmembrane Carrier System (TCS), Inex¿s proprietary technology designed to direct more of a drug to the cancer site and to keep it there for a longer period of time, resulting in a more effective and less toxic product.

David Main, president and CEO of Inex, told BioWorld Today the companies have not narrowed their research to any specific type of cancer. ¿The type of cancer is dependent upon the active drug that we put inside our delivery technology,¿ he said. ¿Our technology is designed to accumulate at cancer sites that are vascularized. Any type of cancer that has a good blood supply, our delivery system will accumulate at ¿ and that pretty much covers all types of cancer, except maybe brain cancer.¿

Financial terms of the agreement call for GSK to pay Inex $36 million (C$57 million) in up-front and milestone fees. Inex also will receive royalties on the first product as well as future products. GSK is responsible for all development costs.

Furthermore, Main said GSK obtains exclusive rights to the TCS technology for future camptothecin compounds.

Inex¿s technology already has proven successful in other projects to include a $60 million deal with Dublin-based Elan Pharmaceuticals plc. The joint venture was struck within the last six months and aims to introduce Onco TCS, a treatment for relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin¿s lymphoma. The drug is in a pivotal Phase II/III clinical trial and the companies expect regulatory filing in late 2002 or early 2003. (See BioWorld Today, May 1, 2001.)

¿This is our second significant corporate partnership in 12 months so I think from the Inex perspective, we are demonstrating that we are bringing in larger pharmas to work with us, and this is a good sign for Inex as a company and for our technology,¿ Main said. Inex, the employer of 130 people, was founded in 1992 and went public in 1996.

On the GSK deal, Main said even though Hycamtin already has received regulatory approval, it is viewed as a new product when combined with the TCS technology. He went on to say that the first product resulting from the collaboration is in the preclinical stage, and is scheduled to enter the clinic within the next 12 months.