Cancer has long been one of the great evils of healthcare.
It is easily one of the most insidious and prolific group of diseases society has dealt with. A burden that we are constantly struggling to find better ways to deal with.
We are making progress though.
Every day there are still companies working to fight the good fight against cancer. And one such company is a small biotech firm known as Race Oncology Ltd [ASX:RAC]. A company with the share price trading 60% higher today!
The reason for this euphoria? Well, Race may have just produced their first breakthrough…
A ray of hope
What makes Race Oncology unique is the fact that they aren’t working on a new drug or treatment. Rather, the company has been investigating the potential of an older chemotherapy drug.
Known as ‘Bisantrene’, this drug has an extensive history of being trialled. But, as Race notes, this promising drug was lost in a myriad of US mergers and acquisitions back in the 1990s.
That is, until Race rediscovered the drug and acquired the patents to it.
Since then they’ve been busy trying to turn Bisantrene into a viable treatment option. A drug that has shown promise for treating Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in the past.
However, in order to popularise this drug once more they’ve got to prove it can work. And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
Today, after a small Phase II trial, Bisantrene has produced a 40% response rate.
Of the 10 patients treated, one went into complete remission. While three others managed at least a partial remission. Reconfirming what a lot of the old studies and data suggested.
As Race’s chair clinical advisor, Borje Andersson, comments:
‘While bisantrene had been demonstrated to be an effective AML salvage drug in the 1980’s, the data we had were old. It was important for us to study it by today’s standards using the current formulation, as we sought to confirm that bisantrene could still generate a meaningful response rate in this highly frail patient population with heavily pre-treated AML.’
With that confirmation now all but official, Race can move onto the next stage. Hopefully leading to broader and much more extensive testing.
In fact, one follow-up study is already in ‘advanced planning’. Putting this tiny biotech on the right path for future success.
More details to come
For Race investors, all of this is fantastic news.
Shareholders can even listen in to a full briefing on the finding’s tomorrow morning. A call that may shed some more light on what the company’s next steps will be.
Because while the market response is impressive right now, the possibilities are far higher.
It will all depend on just how impactful this drug ends up being. A task that Race will now have to prove via further testing.
This has all the hallmarks of a miraculous biotech success story. Granted, they’ve still got a long road ahead of them yet.
It’s a classic, speculator’s dream. The kind of investing punt that involves a lot of risk, but also the potential for huge reward. A stock that your average investor would never even hear about, let alone invest in.
Here at Money Morning though, these are exactly the kind of stocks we love. Not just because they have huge potential, but because they’re unique. You won’t find the mainstream media talking about a company like Race…
We do though — and if that is something you’re interested in, then we have the perfect content for you. Click here to sign up for investing news you won’t find anywhere else.
Regards,
Ryan Clarkson-Ledward,
For Money Morning
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