OTTAWA, Ontario, October 31, 2019 (Newswire.com) – Orion Biotechnology Canada, Ltd. today announced that OB-002 was able to significantly reduce bone metastasis in a murine model of breast cancer. The study was conducted in collaboration with ProQinase (Heidelberg, Germany; https://www.proqinase.com/). Female BALB/c mice received orthotopic implantation of 4T1-M3_Luc cells into the mammary fat pad. The 4T1 breast cancer cells were transfected with firefly luciferase that allowed bioluminescent quantification of metastatic disease. Mice were randomized to receive placebo, OB-002, or a combination of OB-002 and an anti-PD-1. The OB-002 was administered via intraperitoneal (IP) injection daily (Monday through Friday) and the anti-PD-1 was administered IP every 3-4 days. The mice randomized to receive OB-002 at a dose of 20 mg/kg demonstrated a significant reduction in Day 20 primary tumor volume compared to placebo and the mice randomized to receive 80 mg/kg had a significant reduction in spinal bone metastasis.

“These data demonstrating that OB-002 can induce a significant reduction in both primary and metastatic breast cancer are very exciting and add to the growing body of data suggesting that OB-002 has the potential to play an important role in cancer therapy,” said Dr. Ian McGowan, Chief Medical Officer for Orion Biotechnology. “Unfortunately, bone is the most common site of metastatic breast cancer (Ording AG et al., Clin Exp Metastasis 2017) and approximately 70% of women dying from breast cancer have bone metastases (Awolaran O et al., Breast 2016). Clearly, any product that has the potential to reduce breast cancer-associated bone metastasis would be a major advance in the field.”

Mark Groper, President and CEO of Orion Biotechnology, added, “Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and remains a challenging disease to manage. Bone metastasis is a frequent and debilitating complication of breast cancer and so these preliminary preclinical data are very encouraging.”