StimOxyGen - pH-responsive, oxygen-generating nanoparticles for enhanced treatment of hypoxic tumours

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Cancer incidence and mortality continues to rise; with 30% of people diagnosed with cancer in 2000, this statistic has increased to 40% in 2020\. Despite increasing cancer prevalence, the major approaches to cancer treatment have largely remained the same i.e., surgery (if eligible), chemotherapy, and radiotherapy and depending on the jurisdiction up to 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy. Many of these treatments fail due to tumour hypoxia (a lack of oxygen at the tumour site).Hypoxia is a significant challenge to the successful treatment of cancer as virtually all solid tumours are hypoxic to some degree. Radiotherapy is 250-300% less effective in hypoxic tumours and addressing the challenge presented by hypoxia represents a major clinical unmet need as 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy. This important barrier to successful cancer treatment has been recognised since the early 1900s but up to now, attempts to overcome hypoxia have proven unsuccessful for a variety of reasons including toxicity and a lack of proven efficacy of such approaches.StimOxyGen is a proprietary and innovative nanoparticle-based solution to the challenge presented by hypoxia to effective radiotherapy that can seamlessly integrate with current clinical practice. One of the consequences of hypoxia in the tumour is a decreased pH in the tumour microenvironment. The novel StimOxyGen formulation consists of an oxygen-generating nanoparticle that is coated with a pH sensitive polymer. Once the particle encounters the low pH in the tumour microenvironment, the polymer dissolves and oxygen is then generated in the actual tumour.The purpose of this project is to accelerate the development of StimOxyGen towards a first in human clinical trial in order to enhance existing radiotherapy-based approaches to cancer treatment and access a global market estimated to be in the region of US$6.9 billion. In doing so the project will achieve a series of technological and commercial milestones in order to address financial, regulatory and commercial requisites to enable full commercial exploitation of the technology in a timely manner.