Ark Therapeutics and Laurantis agree manufacturing deal

Ark Therapeutics has won a contract with Laurantis Pharma that will see it tasked with producing a new therapy for breast cancer-associated lymphoma.

The conditional agreement will see Ark handling manufacturing and supply duties for Lymfactin, a compound which uses an adenoviral vector to deliver vascular endothelial growth factor during transplantation of lymph nodes in order to avoid lymphoedema.

This arrangement is subject to Laurantis receiving regulatory approval to commence phase I clinical testing of the drug, with a study set to commence in the US and Finland in 2013.

Currently, breast cancer-associated lymphoedema is the most common form of secondary lymphoedema and occurs in around 20 percent of breast cancer patients who undergo axillary lymph node dissection.

It is thought that the number of patients living with this condition amounts to around 110,000 each in both the US and Europe.

This announcement comes a month after Ark Therapeutics completed the manufacturing and release of a new developmental cancer drug product for PsiOxus Therapeutics, ahead of a planned phase I trial.