Argus Begins Phase I AnnamycinLF Trials

Argus Pharmaceuticals has started a Phase I, dose-ranging trial of AnnamycinLF (liposomal annamycin) after preclinical data, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting last week, showed that the drug is a promising treatment for cancers resistant to therapy with anthracycline antibiotics like doxorubicin.

In addition to activity in doxorubicin-resistant tumors, AnnamycinLF also appears to have a lower rate of cardiotoxicity than doxorubicin. In the preclinical studies, the agent demonstrated significant antitumor activity against multidrug resistant cell lines and animal tumor models (expressing the MDR-1 protein). In chronic mouse cardiotoxicity studies assessing equal doses of doxorubicin and AnnamycinLF, the incidence of cardiac lesions was 60%-70% and less than 10% respectively.