VioQuest to sponsor clinical trial of potential cancer treatment

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Feb. 21 - VioQuest Pharmaceuticals said Tuesday that it has resurrected the study of triciribine-phosphate (TCN-P), a potential cancer treatment abandoned by researchers in the mid-1990s, after scientists recently discovered that it may serve as a targeted therapeutic against malignant tumors.

Now called VQD-002 by VioQuest, credit for the medical reinvention goes to the drug discovery team at the University of South Florida's H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, according to a company news release.

VioQuest said it will sponsor a clinical trial with VQD-002 at the Moffitt cancer center.

"Our optimism is based on a new understanding of tumor biology. With this understanding, we will be able to provide patients with a drug that is targeted to a specific type of cancer," chief executive officer Daniel Greenleaf said in the release.

The compound was most effective in treating tumors that had abnormal levels of a cellular protein called "Akt."

Hyperactive Akt is found in 70% of patients with leukemia, 40% of patients with breast cancer, 30% with colon cancer and 50% with melanoma, officials said.

Such abnormal levels of Akt proteins are thought to cause resistance to standard cancer drugs. But researchers found that VQD-002 reduced the levels of hyperactive Akt in certain cancer tissues, leading to reduced cancer growth, officials said.

"Participants will initially have their tumor tissue tested to see whether they have abnormal levels of Akt. If so, they'll be given the drug and then undergo a subsequent test to determine the level of overactive Akt proteins. These steps are designed to identify patients who stand the best chance of benefiting from the drug," Greenleaf said in the release.

VioQuest is a Basking Ridge, N.J., biotechnology company that acquires, develops and commercializes targeted, late, preclinical and early clinical-stage therapies with unique mechanisms of action for the treatment of oncologic, viral and autoimmune disorders.

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