AlphaMed Awarded $750,000 Grant for Its Targeted Melanoma Therapy

ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AlphaMed Inc. has been awarded a $750,000 peer review grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue development of its targeted melanoma therapy.

Funds from this grant will be used to develop an imaging capability required for treatment planning. For the clinic, treatment planning is required to demonstrate tumor uptake and is used to calculate the dose of the therapeutic that would be administered to patients. Previously, in preclinical animal tests, AlphaMed demonstrated a cure with its targeted radiotherapy. Increasing doses of its therapy were injected into the blood stream of several groups of animals. Every animal receiving even the lowest dose showed life extension. In two separate tests, approximately half the animals receiving the highest dose were cured. Maximum tolerated dose has not been reached. More than 90% of the compound cleared the body within two hours of administering the dose. Biodistribution studies showed high tumor uptake when compared with other organs.

How it works – a molecule that binds to receptors overexpressed in approximately 75% of melanomas is labeled with lead-212, an isotope that AlphaMed produces. The decay of this isotope releases large amounts of energy that destroys targeted tumor cells. For treatment planning, the same molecule is labeled with Pb-203, an isotope that can be imaged and of the same element as the therapeutic. This work has been published in peer review journals: Clinical Cancer Research and the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

AlphaMed is seeking partners to assist in completing drug development for its therapeutic and treatment planning products.

Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 60,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with melanoma and 8,000 people will die from the disease this year. AlphaMed’s targeted therapy offers hope of a cure for this disease.