Cancer Targeted Technology (CTT), a Seattle-based biotech company, has secured a grant of $1.44 million from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support an ongoing clinical trial of a new radiotherapeutic called CTT1403 in prostate cancer.

According to the company, the NIH grant has been awarded on the second year of a competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase IIB grant. The three-year grant began in 2019 and totals $3.3 million.

CTT1403 has been designed to target prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) which is excessively expressed on prostate cancer.

The clinical trial for CTT1403, which is being held at the University of California, San Francisco with Dr. Rahul Aggarwal as the principal investigator, is a dose escalation/expansion trial in 30-40 male patients suffering from advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Cancer Targeted Technology said that the CTT1403 clinical trial is designed to determine the safety and efficacy of the radiotherapeutic and is currently halfway through the initial dose escalation phase.

The US biotech company claimed that so far, there have been no safety problems with the radiotherapeutic and that the pharmacokinetic data support its longer circulation time in the blood stream in comparison to other PSMA agents, that are currently in clinical trials.

Dr. Beatrice Langton-Webster – Cancer Targeted Technology CEO said: “These PSMA-targeted agents are already transforming how prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated and we are very pleased that the NIH continues to support the development of these exciting new agents.

“CTT1403, with its longer circulating time and better tumor targeting characteristics, offers distinct advantages in this treatment arena providing the patient with cost and treatment benefits.”

  Cancer Targeted Technology, CTT1403, Dr. Beatrice Langton-Webster, National Institutes of Health, Prostate cancer, Seattle, USA