Encouraging Ph I data for Hybrigenics' inecalcitol

Paris, France-based Hybrigenics SA has reported strong Phase I trial results for inecalcitol, a synthetic analog of vitamin D under development for prostate cancer. 80mg of the agent in 36 healthy human volunteers found no side effects. In particular, there was no hypercalcemia nor a rise in calcium levels in the urine.

Vitamin D analogs are well known for their antiproliferative properties on psoriatic skin cells, but also on a wide variety of cancer cells. However, their therapeutic use has often been limited by hypercalcemia, a major physiological effect of natural vitamin D. The big advantage of inecalcitol is that it has a much lower hypercalcemic activity in vivo (100-200 times less than calcitriol, the active metabolite of vitamin D), and yet shows a more than 10-fold stronger inhibition of cancer cell growth in vitro, the French firm noted.