- Theralase Technologies (TSXV:TLT), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical stock, has shown its lead drug candidate, Rutherrin, to enhance cancer immunotherapy in a pre-clinical setting
- The combination treatment could bring much-needed efficiency to the current standard of care in the more than US$125 billion market
- Theralase is developing light and/or radiation-activated compounds, associated drug formulations and the light systems that activate them to destroy various cancers, bacteria and viruses
- Theralase stock has given back 26.79 per cent year-over-year and 58.16 per cent since 2019
Theralase Technologies (TSXV:TLT), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical stock, has shown its lead drug candidate, Rutherrin, to enhance cancer immunotherapy in a pre-clinical setting.
Rutherrin is composed of the company’s light-activated compound, Ruvidar (TLD-1433), in combination with an endogenous human glycoprotein known as transferrin, and has been shown to destroy cancer cells with a more than 99.9 per cent kill rate.
The new pre-clinical research shows the drug also reduces the expression and enhances the visibility of a protein in cancer cells that helps them evade the immune system, thus aiding its paired immunotherapy, known as a checkpoint inhibitor, to more efficiently block the protein and clear the way for the immune system to attack.
While it would take years of clinical trials to even apply for regulatory approval, the combination treatment could bring much-needed efficiency to the current standard of care, which treats immunotherapy resistance by administering multiple immunotherapies simultaneously, often leading to diminishing efficacy, severe side effects and even treatment-related death.
Theralase’s exposure to the more than US$125 billion global cancer immunotherapy market is in addition to numerus others that make Rutherrin and/or Ruvidar potentially transformational for patients and shareholders alike. These include:
- The more than US$5 billion bladder cancer market.
- The chemotherapy market, which is estimated to grow from US$157.7 billion in 2022 to US$331.3 billion in 2032, according to Persistence Market Research.
- The lung cancer market, which reached US$29.5 billion in 2022 and is forecasted to grow to US$86.5 billion by 2032, according to Global Market Insights.
- The markets for viruses such as H1N1 influenza, coronavirus, Zika, poxvirus and herpes, representing tens of billions more in potential cash flow from future applications.
Despite its ample research upside, Theralase shares have given back 26.79 per cent year-over-year and 58.16 per cent since 2019, suggesting the market’s inefficient appreciation of Rutherrin’s wide-ranging promise.
Leadership insights
“It is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges in the 21st century that cancer of various forms affects and kills millions of people each and every year, without discrimination,” Arkady Mandel, Theralase’s chief scientific officer, said in a statement. “Immunotherapy is the latest technology that attempts to harness the power of the immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells; however, these same cancer cells, treated with immunotherapy, develop mechanisms to avoid detection by the immune system, which consequently has an adverse effect on how effectively they react to therapy. In that regard, in a clinical setting, the term ‘resistance to immunotherapy’ is applied; primary resistance denoting a failure to respond to the treatment from day one, while secondary resistance denoting a relapse following the initial response to immunotherapy.
“Despite remarkable scientific progress in this field, attempts to develop new strategies against cancer resistance to immunotherapy have proven difficult. We are very pleased with the results of our latest research, demonstrating that our lead drug formulation, Rutherrin, is able to maintain a therapeutic balance between various ‘accelerators’ and ‘brakes’ of our immune system to ensure that it is sufficiently engaged in attack against malignant cells, while avoiding destruction of healthy cells and tissues.”
Roger DuMoulin-White, Theralase’s president and chief executive officer, said, “All cancer therapies, in their essence, attempt to destroy the disease, with minimal to no side effects and allow the patient a complete response with no recurrence; however, despite recent advances in the treatment of specific cancer types, many patients still struggle to respond to cancer treatments and are left with significant side effects. The PD-L1 (immune checkpoint protein) functions as a ‘brake’ on the innate immune system, while Calreticulin (‘eat me’ signal) functions as an accelerator. We are very pleased to demonstrate that Rutherrin has the potential of releasing the ‘brake’ and applying the ‘accelerator’ to the immune system at the right time and thereby unleashing the power of our immune system to attack and destroy cancerous cells, while sparing healthy ones. By stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to protect and defend our bodies against cancer, Rutherrin has the potential to establish an entirely new paradigm for cancer therapy.”
About Theralase Technologies
Theralase is developing light and/or radiation-activated compounds, associated drug formulations and the light systems that activate them to destroy various cancers, bacteria and viruses.
Theralase stock (TSXV:TLT) is up by 5.13 per cent, trading at C$0.20 per share as of 10:43 am ET.
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(Top photo, generated by AI: Adobe Stock)
