Biotech firm Pfizer said Thursday it had begun a clinical trial of a new drug against ovarian cancer using a different compound to the ones it has previously produced. An interim analysis of a previous clinical trial found that the second clinical trial, in mice, was as effective against ovarian cancer as the first clinical trial in a human.
The company is testing a combination of its investigational compound, tisotumab ozogamicin, which is being developed as a treatment for the bone disorder osteoporosis, with its experimental compound, ec-516, an acrylamide inhibitor.
These both have the potential to fight cancer by blocking the hormone, endocannabinoid, which naturally exists in the body and is thought to influence cancer cell growth. Research has shown that small amounts of marijuana, say up to 20 milligrams, can turn mice cancerous. The drugs Pfizer has been working on, however, are far less potent.
Pfizer did not say what doses of the drugs it is testing in the clinical trial. The Food and Drug Administration initially approved tezocumab as a treatment for bone ailments in 2003.
The former clinical trial had looked at how well the Pfizer drugs worked in response to ovarian cancer. The clinical trial of ec-516 had been set up with tests that were designed to determine whether levels of endocannabinoid in the body affect the effectiveness of the drugs.