31st January 2012
Theryte: February’s MediWales featured member
Theryte – creating a new cancer therapy
Theryte is a cancer drug discovery development company, exploiting its strong intellectual property position and unique approach to develop new treatments against solid tumours. The company was originally spun out from the University of Liverpool by a clinical oncologist, Professor Hilmar Warenius, who developed a radical new approach to cancer treatment.
Cancer cells develop from normal human cells through a series of mutations. Despite accumulating much genetic damage, and having an unstable phenotype and impaired differentiation, cancer cells paradoxically proliferate more successfully than normal cells, invade surrounding tissue and spread throughout the body. We have identified a number of cellular pathways that are key to the stabilisation of these damaged cells. Currently, we are exploiting a novel region of the critical cell cycle protein, Cdk4, and have demonstrated that delivering a small piece of this protein inside the cancer cell will kill it, whilst at the same time sparing normal human cells. This intrinsic selectivity is an important feature of Theryte’s technology, with the potential to lead to a new generation of anti-cancer drugs.
The company has recently secured a grant from the Welsh Government and new investment from business angels to fund an 8 month science plan to reach a critical in vivo proof-of-concept milestone. We have set up a base at the Cardiff Medicentre, at Heath Park Hospital, and wish to build new relationships with the strong cancer community in South Wales, and to establish collaborations and partnerships with academics and clinicians who find the company’s approach to new cancer drug development intriguing and who would like to further explore the biological mechanisms underpinning the phenomenon that is being exploited. Becoming a member of MediWales is a key step in raising our profile in the local community. Theryte operates a lean company model with all of its R&D work currently outsourced, and so we would like to work with service providers who have expertise in early stage cancer drug discovery and pre-clinical studies.
Achieving proof-of-concept is a critical milestone both for the technology itself and also for the success of the company. It will allow us to further develop the lead compound to the point where it can be tested in patients. Drug development is an expensive process, and Theryte will need to raise further finance to take its technology forward to the point where is can be licensed to a large pharmaceutical company, who will take responsibility for the extensive human clinical trials which are necessary to demonstrate both efficacy and safety, and before the technological breakthrough can benefit cancer patients. The company will be looking to raise £4-5M in the latter half of 2012, from a number of sources, including through a Series A funding and further grants, including potentially as an SME participant of a Europe-wide consortium accessing FP7 funding.
To find out more about Theryte and how you can become involved in the development of its unique approach to cancer treatment, please contact the CEO, Dr Bill Primrose at bill.primrose@theryte.com, or phone him on 07788 441945. For further background to the technology, visit our website at www.theryte.com .