Nanopharmaceutical developed at Unicamp for the treatment of bladder cancer was highlighted at the XIII International Congress of Uro-oncology
Research using OncoTherad, a medicine for the treatment of bladder cancer developed and patented by the State University of Campinas, was highlighted among the scientific studies on urological cancer at the 13th International Congress of Uro-oncology, held in April, in São Paulo. This is the third consecutive time that a work using synthetic nanoparticles has won first place in the award.
“It is an important recognition to receive this award for three consecutive years at a congress that highlights the importance of fundamental studies, both basic and clinical. This shows the quality of our university and Brazilian research”, said professor and research coordinator Wagner José Fávaro.
OncoTherad induces an immune response from T cells in the body, activating lymphocytes that produce a protein called interferon, important for fighting both cancer and some infectious diseases. The award-winning research aimed to evaluate the effects of nanoimmunotherapy associated with plasma therapy (liquid portion of the blood that does not include red and white blood cells) rich in platelets on the progression of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in a mouse model. The results showed significant inhibition of tumor progression.
This is the fifth award received by the Unicamp team in less than a year. Another four works from the Laboratory of Urogenital Carcinogenesis and Immunotherapy (LCURGIM), from the Institute of Biology (IB), had already been awarded in the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Uro-oncology Congress.
In November last year, Fávaro was recognized by the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology (SBOC) at the XXII Brazilian Congress of Clinical Oncology. An unprecedented category of the SBOC Award praised the researcher's contribution to the consolidation of the first 100% Brazilian immunotherapy for cancer treatment developed within a public university.
“There is a huge appeal for OncoTherad to reach people, as we have difficulty obtaining standard treatment for bladder cancer. Patients from Brazil and other parts of the world regularly suffer from a lack of the Onco-BCG vaccine”, comments Fávaro.
On the way to the market
The OncoTherad patent was granted by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), federal agency for granting patents and registering trademarks in the United States. In 2021, the technology was licensed in a precursor work, which led to an exclusive license for the NanoImmunotherapy. The company is an academic spin-off whose shareholders are Fávaro and researcher Nelson Durán, professors at Unicamp and inventors of the immunotherapy.
The patent application was also filed with Inova Unicamp's strategy and is in an advanced stage of analysis at National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in Brazil and European Patent Office (EPO), European patent office. If granted, Unicamp's daughter company will have exclusive rights to sell the medicine in three important markets: the United States, Europe and Brazil. Exclusive licensing represents a competitive advantage, even more so for a pharmaceutical company like Nanoimmunotherapy, which has just hit the market.
In recent months, the startup has focused its efforts on prospecting partnerships and investments to build a production plant, aiming to accelerate the production of the immunotherapy in a commercial model. This is one of Anvisa's requirements so that the Nanoimmunotherapy Pharma can advance to the phase of clinical studies in patients, necessary to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the product. For now, OncoTherad is only used in experimental research and cannot be sold. The great challenge would derive from the pioneering nature of the technology itself. According to Fávaro, there are still no standards in the country for the production of an oncology medicine like OncoTherad.
“We have no information that Anvisa has authorized laboratories to produce an API in the oncology area. This is the first time we have discussed this. We seek to build a plant that produces API and formulates a medicine, meets ANVISA's requirements and even helps the body to regulate. We are breaking yet another paradigm”, points out Fávaro.
Pioneering trajectory
Research into nanotechnological immunotherapy began in 2007 and followed an unusual pioneering trajectory at the University, with the creation of the academic spin-off. In this model, the inventors themselves are responsible for taking the knowledge produced to the market, closely following the commercial development phases necessary to transform a technology into a viable product or service.
O OncoTherad has shown promise in treating bladder cancer, particularly in patients for whom traditional therapies have failed and surgery is inadvisable. It acts in a complementary way to improve patients' immune response by activating the body's defense cells. The nanodrug was successful in 77,3% of cases of bladder cancer experimentally treated in humans and reduced the resistance of tumors, reducing the formation of metastases and the blood vessels responsible for feeding them.
Furthermore, it proved to be safe and few side effects. Another differentiator of the technology developed at Unicamp is its platform characteristics. It can be adapted to treat other diseases and develop new drugs, increasing its reach. The medicine has already been applied to patients with Covid-19 with positive results.
Learn a little about the history of OncoTherad in this video:
THE ACADEMIC SPIN-OFF
One of the spin off Academic is a company that has at the heart of its business a technology or knowledge developed at the University. The company's role is, as a rule, to mature the licensed intellectual property, generally in embryonic stages, making a commercial model of the product or service viable. And, in the case of a pharmaceutical company like NanoImmunotherapy, also overcome the regulatory steps required for the production of a new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (IFA) which include the release of the new drug.
The opening of companies by Unicamp professors, researchers and employees was regularized with Unicamp's new Innovation Policy, approved in 2019 based on the Federal Innovation Law. Since then, inventors can be part of a technology-based company without moving away from the functions performed at the University. With this, Unicamp hopes to encourage the transfer of technologies with the potential to change people's lives.
