04.01.04
Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Broomfield, CO, has entered into a research collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, MD, to isolate and identify anti-solid tumor compounds for ultimate licensing and drug development by the pharmaceutical industry. As part of this agreement, which protects the rights of all the parties involved, including the countries of origin of the source plants, and which is expected to net positive results within a year, Unigen will obtain 36 anti-solid tumor plant extracts from NCI’s Natural Products Repository and will utilize its PhytoLogix technology platform to carry out high-throughput purification (HTP) and identification. Unigen will submit the isolated natural compounds to the Josephine Ford Cancer Center for further screening of these selective inhibitors against breast, lung and colon tumor cells for the identification of active anti-solid tumor compounds that do not create toxicity in normal bone marrow stem cells. All three parties will work together to further pursue the lead compounds in preclinical and human clinical studies, which may lead to FDA-approved therapeutic agents.