DexTech takes the next step with OsteoDex

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is an advanced form of prostate cancer where metastases have taken hold in the bones. When the disease has progressed to this point, a vicious cycle occurs where the cancer interacts with bone cells to progress, while stimulating bone breakdown.

Prevents bone breakdown

It is this vicious cycle that the biotech company DexTech wants to break with the drug candidate OsteoDexSo far, promising efficacy results have been obtained in phase II and the candidate has also been shown to have a favorable safety profile with few side effects, which is important in this context given the vulnerable health status of the patients.

The current treatment landscape for metastatic prostate cancer consists of a handful of drugs with different mechanisms of action and side effect profiles that share an important common denominator – over time, patients develop resistance to existing drugs. There is thus a continuing great medical need for new drugs for this critically ill patient group.

Promising results for OsteoDex

There are several indications that OsteoDex has the potential to take a place in the future cancer treatment market. The most recent came last year during a two-year follow-up of the patients who were included in the company's phase IIb study, which ended in 2018.

The follow-up showed that the survival rate in the patient group that responded to the OsteoDex treatment was so high that no median survival rate had yet been achieved. The majority of patients in this group were still alive two years after the end of treatment, which is an unusually good result in advanced cancer. When the results were read, the survival rate for the patient group was 65 percent, compared to 28 percent for the patient group that did not respond to the treatment.

With these encouraging survival data behind them, the company has been working for some time to find a sponsor for the project. The goal is to then take OsteoDex to phase III studies and further to market registration in mCRPC. DexTech states that it has been in contact with a handful of major pharmaceutical companies that have shown interest in both OsteoDex and the company's underlying technology platform, and the process is still in full swing.

Expanding the project with a new indication

The company believes that the project has great potential and is not prepared to let it go at any price. Therefore, in parallel with ongoing partnering discussions, it has continued to conduct studies with the candidate. Among other things, the company wanted to investigate whether there are other cancer patients, in addition to those suffering from mCRPC, who could potentially be helped by OsteoDex.

Here, DexTech has presented promising preclinical results in multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer that develops in the bone marrow and, like mCRPC, causes bone breakdown.

The candidate so far appears to be very effective against myeloma cells and even appears to be more potent against them than against prostate cancer cells. The results mean that the company has now chosen to continue working with this new indication to further strengthen the OsteoDex project.

It is also worth noting that this opens the door to a treatment area that is worth almost twice as much as the market for mCRPC. According to the market analysis company Fortune Business Insights the market for multiple myeloma is expected to amount to approximately $31 billion per year 2026.

Carry out rights issue

DexTech is in the process of planning a two-year clinical Proof-of-Conceptstudy that will include approximately 20 patients. To finance it, the company is now conducting an 80 percent guaranteed rights issue of approximately SEK 58,2 million, where the proceeds from the issue are intended to be used as follows:

• CRO costs – approximately 53 percent
• Production costs – approximately 15 percent
• Hospital and patient costs – approximately 13 percent
• Ongoing operating costs – approximately 11 percent
• Batch analysis costs – approximately 5 percent
• Transportation costs – approximately 3 percent

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