SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Batu Biologics announced today filing of a patent covering methods of matching cancer patients with experimental drugs under the new Right to Try Law. The recently passed law allows for companies that have passed Phase I of clinical trial to start offering terminal patients access to drugs that are still in development.
“While there has been a great amount of interest generated by the recently passed `Right to Try' law, major ethical questions remain. Specifically, how does one identify which patients have the highest likelihood of success, thereby developing the rationale for the administration of investigational therapies,” said Samuel Wagner, President and CEO of Batu Biologics. “The current patent we filed allows for identification of patients based on blood profiling, otherwise known as `liquid biopsy' in order to screen patients to match them with drugs that are most likely to induce a therapeutic effect.”
The patent filing was based on work performed by Batu scientists, as well as collaborators at the CHIPSA Hospital, where a study has been performed in terms of utilizing blood-based measurements to understand the biology of the tumor and what agents may be selectively active against it.
“As someone who treats cancer patients, it is very important for me to be able to identify what drugs have the highest chance of working, before actually administering them. The current methods of providing patients drugs, waiting to see if they respond or not, and then trying a different drug takes away valuable time from the patient, as well as increases the possibility of drug resistance,” said Dr. Santosh Kesari, Chief Medical Officer of Batu Biologics. “By applying the techniques of liquid biopsy to patients considering different medications available under the Right to Try law, we are taking away the randomness currently associated with such experimental approaches, and offering a logical and reproducible method of matching patients with drugs.”
Prior to the patent filing by Batu, physicians normally use therapies based on the type of cancer, unfortunately, every patient is different and every cancer is different. The approaches described in the patent allow for collection of tumor generated materials from blood, either cells, DNA, or exosomes. These methods are non-invasive and provide an accurate description of the tumor, without the need to perform tumor biopsy. In some situations, tumor biopsies may disrupt the tumor and as a result enhance metastasis.
