The story of Can-Fite Biopharma moves fast or slow, depending on how one reads it. “The company was a virtual project, an incubator company,” says Can-Fite co-founder and president Dr. Ilan Cohn. “Can-Fite has existed on paper for 18 months, but was preceded by years of work before the 2001 breakthrough.”
Dr. Cohn emphasizes the rapid pace of the work, which has brought Can-Fite from the molecular to the clinical trials on people stage in nine months. “We met our targets satisfactorily,” he says.
Although Cohn is a senior partner in the firm of Reinhold, Cohn and Partners, he lacks practical experience in the field. His previous professional experience was at various venture capital funds. Can-Fite’s co-founder is immunologist Prof. Pnina Fishman, who served as a researcher at the Felsenstein Medical Research Center of the Rabin Medical Center. In 1994, she founded Mor Research Applications , a subsidiary of Kupat Holim Clalit (HMO), which holds a small stake in Can-Fite. Mor Research originally hired Cohn as a consultant, but it was a chance meeting with Fishman on a plane that led to the professional collaboration.
Fishman spent the long years in hibernation in the lab, trying to identify a simple chemical molecule from a multitude of candidates. That was Can-Fite’s toughest task. The project was based on a clinical diagnosis by Fishman’s teacher. “One day, he came and told me, ‘Muscles are 65% of body mass, but cancerous tumors are rare in muscle tissue. Why’,” said Fishman. “He threw me the ball, and I ran with it. The whole world is asking why there is cancer. We asked why there wasn’t.”
Fishman discovered in tests conducted on cultures that cancerous cells did not grow in muscle tissue. It wasn’t magic by the tissue itself, but an effect of substances secreted by the muscles. Within muscle cells are substances that identify cancerous cells and inhibit their development, while leaving normal cells undamaged. Furthermore, these defensive substances protect white blood cells from the devastation of chemotherapy. The conclusion is that these substances differentiate between cancerous and normal cells, inhibit tumor development and induce production of white blood cells.
One of the active substances involved is adenosine, a molecule present in all tissue cells, which act as a surveillance mechanism by linking specific receptors. All tissue cells have these receptors. Can-Fite discovered that the relevant receptor that activates the anti-cancer mechanism is an A3 receptor. It can be activated by agonists, synthetic molecules that bind with this specific receptor.
This is where the Jewish factor comes into play. The A3 receptor is related to the life work of Kenneth Jacobson of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. Jacobson spent years synthesizing molecules to bind A3, and now he had a customer. Fishman and Cohn made a pilgrimage to him to obtain two molecules (adding a third later), which was when the real work began. In April 2001, Can-Fite obtained an NIH exclusive license to use the molecules, after negotiations that took over a year, Cohn says. “It’s difficult working with them, the bureaucracy is protracted.”
Unlike adenosine, which breaks down in the bloodstream within 20 seconds and can be toxic in high concentrations, Jacobson’s agonist for the A3-type receptor remains in the body for eight hours, and is not toxic. Can-Fite’s active substance, CF-101, is based on this molecule. CF-101 activates Adenosine in the body, and is also the basis for developing treatments for melanoma, colon and prostate cancer.
“Basically, we have a molecule that can differentiate between cancer cells and normal cells,” says Fishman. Cohn adds, “We are exploiting a natural mechanism in the body that prevents cancer.” It must be noted that are no currently satisfactory cancer treatments. Innovative technologies such as Can-Fite’s do not talk about 100% cures, but disease maintenance, or “long-term treatment to prevent the cancer’s recurrence.” In other words, optimistically, a successful treatment will turn the cancer into a chronic illness that can be lived with for years, such as asthma. That in itself would be no mean achievement.
Earlier research already proved that these molecules can protect against damage to the heart and neurological systems, which opens a door to additional applications. In other words, the molecules are a platform whose main capability is expressed in its ability to influence molecular mechanisms by activating certain receptors. Can-Fite is currently developing treatments for viral diseases, Alzheimer’s, and various infections. Can-Fite is collaborating with Temple University in Philadelphia to exploit the molecule’s anti-viral potential to prevent certain types of AIDS-related infections.
CF-101 is began Phase I clinical trials in February. Phase II trials are scheduled for the end of this year or early 2003. Next generation drug candidates, CF-301 and Cf-201 are scheduled to begin clinical trials in the fourth quarter of 2002 and second quarter of 2003, respectively.
Clinical trials on mice produced impressive results by combining Can-Fite’s drug with chemotherapy. Cohn says health regulators will undoubtedly approve CF-101 as a supplementary, rather than as a sole treatment. This means the marketing approval threshold is lower. Cohn therefore expects launching the drug by 2005. He also believes CF-101 will outperform Amgen’s (Nasdaq:XETRA:AMGN) Neupogen chemotherapy supplementary treatment, because CF-101 can be taken orally.
Can-Fite’s assets include new facilities under construction in a Petah Tikva office building, scheduled to open this month. The company’s 15 employees in Israel handle the research, while development is carried out in the US. Cohn declares that if the US operation expands tremendously, Can-Fite will want to return production to Israel. Another vital asset is Can-Fite VP drug development William (Bill) Kerns, a former group director of preclinical safety assessment at SmithKline Beecham, which later merged with Glaxo.
Giza Venture Capital senior VP and head of life sciences Dr. Avi Molcho will serve as Can-Fite’s chairman. Giza led the Can-Fite’s last financing round, with Yozma Venture Capital and Ascend Technology Ventures, which closed recently, raising $10 million. Cohn declined to disclose the company value, but talks about “tens of millions of dollars”. Can-Fite previously raised $4.1 million, including $3.5 million from external sources, and $600,000 from internal sources, including a personal investment by Cohn.
Now that Can-Fite has begun clinical trials, it needs partners. Cohn mentions, “Senior-level talks with many companies. They even come to Israel to conduct due diligence.” One of the companies is outstanding but Cohn declines to name it, for obvious reasons. The potential partners are leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Cohn says, “We are carefully examining many possibilities.”
As for future ambitions, Cohn says, “I hope to see Can-Fite as a second Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA). Not in terms of size or focus, but in terms of its global impact.”
| Name: Can-Fite Biopharma Founded: 2000 Founders: Dr. Ilan Cohn, Prof. Pnina Fishman Product: cancer therapeutic technology that makes use of adenosine receptor agonists Financing rounds: $14.5 million in two financing round Ownership: Giza Venture Capital, Yozma Venture Capital, Ascend Technology Ventures, Azritech Ventures, Mediseed, Kupat Holim Clalit and private investors Employees: 15 in Israel and the US |
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 7, 2002