By Loren Watson
State Press
ASU recently contributed to the fight against cancer and made progress in establishing itself as a research university--all because of the African bush willow.
Robert Pettit, director of ASU's Cancer Research Institute, discovered a drug called Compretastatin A-4 Prodrug (CA4P) in the shrub, which was collected by the National Cancer Institute in South Africa and purported to be used by local Zulu tribes for medicinal purposes.
The drug works to destroy the blood vessels of and thereby kill solid cancer tumors, which can occur in lung, breast, colon and liver cancers. This month, ASU granted exclusive commercial rights to the drug and its associated technology to the Stockholm-based biopharmaceutical company OXiGENE.
Getting technology commercialized is one of the most important jobs of a university, said Al Poskanzer, director of the ASU's Office of Technology Collaborations and Licensing.
"That's our mission, that's what we do," he said, "and we are very pleased to fulfill that mission."
Poskanzer said this goal becomes even more important when it involves the field of health care and, specifically, cancer research.
OXiGENE officials said they heard about the compound two years ago and promised to bring it to trials, which involves testing it for use in humans. ASU granted OXiGENE exclusive commercial rights of CA4P, and the company has begun testing the drug on humans at three sites in the United States and the United Kingdom.
"We found it (the compound) so interesting that we promised to bring it to clinical trials within three years," said Bo Haglund, chief financial officer of the biopharmaceutical company.
Pettit and the Cancer Research Institute will continue to do research even though OXiGENE has exclusive commercial rights. Pettit may be developing new compounds, Poskanzer said. Pettit is on expedition in the Canadian subarctic until late September and could not be reached for comment.
The Office of Technology Collaborations and Licensing will be responsible for enforcing the terms of the license. Its role is to make sure that OXiGENE brings the drug through all of the necessary testing before it can be submitted for Federal Drug Administration approval. This process could take up to 10 years, Poskanzer said.
He added that many steps must be completed before the drug will be safe to administer to the public. He expressed sadness over calls he has received from families of cancer patients due to media attention.
But so far, the trials are going well, Herald said.
"On behalf of the Cancer Research Institute, we have high hopes for the compretastatin technology's potential use as an anti-cancer drug in the treatment of solid tumors," he said.
Reporter Loren Watson can be reached by phone at (480) 965-2292 or by e-mail at lwatson18@compuserve.com.
