Exhibit 99.1
NuCana Announces First Patients Dosed in Phase I Study ofNUC-7738
NUC-7738 is NuCana’s Third ProTide to Enter the Clinic
Study Will Enroll Up To 61 Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors
Edinburgh, United Kingdom, July 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – NuCana plc (NASDAQ: NCNA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for patients with cancer, today announced that the first patients have been dosed in the Phase I study ofNUC-7738. This is the third ProTide NuCana has advanced to clinical studies and further broadens the therapeutic scope of the ProTide portfolio.NUC-7738 is NuCana’s ProTide transformation of 3’-deoxyadenosine (or cordycepin), a novel nucleoside analog with a unique mode of action, that has shown potent anti-cancer activity in preclinical studies.
Hugh Griffith, NuCana’s Chief Executive Officer, stated: “The dosing of the first patients in this Phase I study ofNUC-7738 is another major step in the expansion of NuCana’s product pipeline.NUC-7738 is our third ProTide to advance to the clinic and the first that is based on a novel nucleoside analog. We are grateful to the patients and clinicians who are making this study possible.”
More information about this study may be found here.
NUC-7738 is a ProTide transformation of cordycepin, a nucleoside analog that was isolated from the fungusCordyceps sinensis in 1950. Cordycepin has demonstrated potent anti-cancer activity in multiple preclinical studies, but has not been successfully developed primarily due to its degradation by the enzyme adenosine deaminase (or ADA). Unlike the parent nucleoside analogue,NUC-7738 is not a substrate for this enzyme and is therefore resistant to degradation by ADA. Similar to NuCana’s other ProTides,NUC-7738 is designed to generate significantly higher levels of the active anti-cancer metabolite of cordycepin, 3’-deoxyadenosine triphosphate (or 3’-dATP), directly inside cells, bypassing the resistance mechanisms of transport, activation and breakdown.
Sarah Blagden, Associate Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics at The University of Oxford and Principal Investigator of the study stated: “Oxford Early Phase Trials unit has enrolled the global first cancer patient to receiveNUC-7738, the latest ProTide anti-cancer agent from NuCana’s pipeline. This is an exciting study to participate in and we look forward to seeing the clinical results.”
About NuCana plc
NuCana® is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for cancer patients by applying our ProTideTM technology to transform some of the most widely prescribed chemotherapy agents, nucleoside analogs, into more effective and safer medicines. While these conventional agents remain part of the standard of care for the treatment of many solid tumors, their efficacy is limited by cancer cell resistance mechanisms and they are often poorly tolerated. Utilizing our proprietary technology, we are developing new medicines, ProTides, designed to overcome key cancer resistance mechanisms and generate much higher concentrations of anti-cancer metabolites in cancer cells.
Our most advanced ProTide candidates, Acelarin® andNUC-3373, are new chemical entities derived from the nucleoside analogs gemcitabine and5-fluorouracil, respectively, two widely used chemotherapy agents. Acelarin is currently being evaluated in three clinical studies, including a Phase Ib study for patients with biliary tract cancer, a Phase II study for patients with ovarian cancer and a Phase III study for patients with pancreatic cancer.NUC-3373 is currently in a Phase I study for the
