Starpharma teams with IDT, AGT to test and develop drugs

It has been a week for collaborations at the Melbourne-based polyvalent nanotechnology development company, Starpharma (ASX:SPL).

First it announced an alliance with the Institute of Drug Technology (ASX:IDT) to conduct safety tests of Starpharma's vaginal microbicide gel.

And today the company revealed it had formed a joint venture with AGT Biosciences (ASX:AGT) to develop novel therapies for type 2 diabetes using dendrimer technology.

Starpharma chief executive officer Dr John Raff said the company's partnering arrangements were an important part of its strategy, and hinted that more collaboration was in the wings.

"We don't pretend to have biological expertise in disease areas, but we do have a leading position in polyvalence work," Raff said. "The people we are working with are experts in certain disease areas and we will continue to interface with groups from smaller companies to big pharmas."

Under the clinical trial agreement with IDT, the scientific research, development and manufacturing outsource provider will conduct the phase 1 studies of VivaGel at its CMAX facility in Adelaide.

VivaGel, containing the active component SPL7013, is a dendrimer-based nanodrug that inhibits the HIV infection process by preventing the attachment of the virus to healthy cells.

The gel, which has received FDA approval for use in clinical trials, has been shown to completely inhibit a closely related virus in monkeys when just 5 per cent of the active component is used.

Raff said the drug had also been shown in animal studies to prevent genital herpes and Chlamydia, and could ultimately be a way for women to privately protect themselves again some sexually transmitted diseases.

"Starpharma investigated a range of options worldwide before deciding on IDT's CMAX facilities," Raff said. "CMAX has previously been audited by the FDA and we believe it is a world-class facility. We are pleased to be able to conduct our first clinical trialling activities in Australia."

He said the company was now waiting for Australian ethics approval before recruiting female volunteers for the study, which is hoped to commence by the end of the year. The initial study will involve some 20 women under 24-hour monitoring at the facility for two weeks.

In the latest joint arrangement, Starpharma will combine its nanostructures approach with AGT's biological knowledge diabetes and strength in validation of potential drugs to develop new treatments for type 2 diabetes.

Dr Raff said the venture was based on mutual respect between two companies who were world leaders in their fields.

"The things we will be producing will be novel compounds but the idea is to strategically improve things that are already there and getting patents on them, or to use other related ideas coming out of research programs," he said.

AGT chief Dr Greg Collier said this marked a totally new approach to diabetes.

He said dendrimer technology offered a novel drug delivery system that had the potential to produce therapies with higher concentrations of the active component but with fewer side-effects.

"What we have added is the expertise and the physical knowledge of diabetes and obesity and we can then combine that with novel targets and put drugs we're looking at on these dendrimers to fast track validation and then go on to seek pharma partners," Collier said.

Nearly all the work is to be undertaken in Australia.

"What it's basically done here is what Australian biotechs need to do and that's combine individual expertise together to push things further down the value chain," Collier explained.

"What needs to happen more and more in biotech is the combination of technologies to push these sorts of discoveries from early stage to as far down the value chain as you can before you partner out."

Starpharma's stock was trading slightly down at the time of writing, slipping 1.35 per cent to 73 cents.

AGT Biosciences and IDT were both trading higher, with AGT up 5.26 per cent to 60 cents and IDT up 6.05 per cent to $2.28.