CSIR’s anti-cancer drug IIIM-290 went into clinical trial

CSIR constituent lab, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) Jammu, has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from New Drugs Division of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for a potent anti-cancer, new chemical entity (NCE) effective against pancreatic cancer after successful completion of preclinical development and IND submission.

The proposed clinical trial will pave the way for CSIR-IIIM to conduct the clinical trial of the important drug candidate IIIM-290 in pancreatic cancer patients.

It is also aimed to assess the safety, tolerability, and exposure of the compound in humans along with the early efficacy indicators in pancreatic cancer patients.

The drug IIIM-290 was discovered and developed at the natural-products driven drug discovery program of CSIR-IIIM.

The drug candidate IIIM-290 showed excellent pharmacokinetics, oral bioavailability and potent anticancer activity in a number of animal xenograft models, with the best activity against the pancreatic cancer model.

Pancreatic cancer, currently, ranks 12th among the most common cancers in the world. But it stands as the 4th leading cause of cancer-related deaths.