LINK Medical and Ectin Research have signed an agreement appointing LINK Medical Research to run the Phase I/II clinical study of the treatment of metastatic bladder cancer patients with the drug candidate MFA-370.

Ectin Research aims to submit its clinical trial application (CTA) to the Swedish Medical Products Agency, in collaboration with LINK Medical, followed by additional regulatory applications in two other countries.

“We are very excited to bring our team of experts to partner and collaborate with the great team at Ectin on this very important study which can have a big impact on patients with advanced or metastatic urothelial cancers,” says Ola Gudmundsen, CEO LINK Medical.

MFA-370

Ectin Research’s cancer treatment MFA-370 can be taken orally and is associated with few and tolerable potential side effects. The first part, the Phase I study, is a safety/tolerability study, encompassing MFA-370 treatment of approximately 10 patients in sites in Sweden, followed by a Phase II study investigating clinical efficacy in 30 patients in Sweden and two other countries in Europe.

MFA-370 combines two tolerable, well-established drugs into a novel cancer therapy. Both substances have previously been widely studied and have independently shown anti-cancer effects in experimental models of different cancer types. Ectin Research has obtained results showing that the two substances enhance each other’s anti-cancer effect by lowering cancer cell proliferation as well as inducing cell death in bladder cancer cells and a number of different cell models of breast, colon and prostate cancer cells. MFA-370 will first be used to treat metastatic bladder cancer patients to demonstrate clinical efficacy but later could potentially also be used to treat, for example, breast, colon and prostate cancer.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with LINK Medical Research, a highly experienced full-service CRO who we are confident will be an excellent collaborator for us as, together, we start our journey towards developing an ultimately safer and more effective treatment for this terrible condition,” says Ectin Research’s CEO Anna Sjöblom-Hallén.

Photo of Ola Gudmundsen: LINK Medical