Andes Biotechnologies Makes Sense of Cancer Treatments with Antisense Technology
This post is one of a series in the #Innovate4Health policy research initiative. #Innovate4Health is a joint research project by the University of Akron IP Center (UAIP), the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), and the Geneva Network. This project highlights how intellectual-property-driven innovation can address global health challenges. If you have questions, comments, or a suggestion for a story we should highlight, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact UAIP Research Fellow Douglas Park at dpark@uakron.edu for more information.
Douglas Park
Cancer is such a pervasive threat that it has become a common metaphor for anything loathsome, yet the treatments are often nearly as bad as the disease. Both chemotherapy and radiotherapy harm healthy parts of the body while also attacking cancer.
By contrast, many new cancer treatments take a more targeted approach. Andes Biotechnology, a Chilean drug development startup, is currently engaged in clinical trials for a new drug that combats unchecked cell growth using novel “antisense” technology. This drug would target cancerous cells without directly affecting normal cells and may even prove effective against all forms of cancer.
Cancer is currently one of the three most common causes of death in 177 of 183 countries worldwide. Nearly one-sixth of all deaths are the result of cancer, and that rate jumps to one-in-four among non-communicable diseases. Globally, over 20 million new cases of cancer developed in 2022, and roughly 9.7 million deaths resulted from cancer.
Those deaths are becoming more common, too. The percentage of the population who succumb to cancer each year rose by 21% from 1990 to 2019. This increase is primarily due to the average human lifespan increasing, in that more people survive long enough to develop cancer.
Because the disease results from flaws in our normal cellular growth, the chances of those processes going awry only increases with time. While there is no evidence to suggest that younger populations are any more susceptible to cancer-related deaths now than in the past, it does seem likely that cancer will be the next major obstacle to improving the human lifespan.
However, available treatments for cancer still leave much to be desired. Chemotherapy involves regular doses of toxic agents that inhibit cellular growth in both cancerous and healthy cells. As with any drug treatment, there is a material risk that cancerous cells will develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs.
Side effects of chemotherapy may include toxicity buildup in kidney or liver as the organs try and fail to filter out the drugs, possibly resulting in organ failure. Because the medicine targets cells that multiply quickly, it also has adverse effects on a patient’s hair follicles, gastrointestinal tract, and bone marrow production.
Radiotherapy involves breaking down the DNA in cancerous cells with the targeted application of intense radiation and has its own limitations. Subjecting the body to radiation damages healthy tissues and can result in symptoms that resemble radiation sickness. Some of these risks can be mitigated with specialized technology that precisely focuses the radiation exposure on cancerous tissues, but these machines can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are in high demand with rising global cancer rates.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are generally combined to optimize efficacy, but even then success is measured by how long patients survive after initial diagnosis. In the United States, 31% of patients succumb within five years of diagnosis, 53% within ten years, and 82% within twenty years, making cancer the second most common cause of death in the US.
In 2018, Chile saw over 50,000 cancer diagnoses and nearly 30,000 deaths from cancer. Chilean patients also see a higher rate of both diagnosis and mortality than other Latin American nations. The risk of developing cancer before the age of 75 is 19.1% in Chile but 18.9% in Latin America, and the risk of dying of cancer before 75 is 9.3% in Chile but only 8.9% in Latin America overall.
However, Andes Biotechnologies stands at the frontier of cancer treatment. The Chilean startup is currently in the first phase of clinical trials for their new Andes-1537 drug. The invention uses a novel “antisense” technology that targets cancerous cells based on identification of precise RNA strands.
Unlike how chemotherapy poisons cancerous cells only marginally more than healthy cells, Andes-1537 identifies cancerous cells by their unique genetic sequences and leaves healthy cells largely unaffected. Even better, preclinical studies indicate that Andes-1537 demonstrates enough versatility that it might be able to treat any kind of cancer.
Andes Biotechnologies could not have made it this far without patent protections, though. The startup was able to commence clinical trials only after receiving 10 million dollars from investors, a sum that would have been impossible for the startup to supply on its own.
Investors like Austral Capital have not only praised Andes’ brilliant innovation but also the startup’s commitment to intellectual property rights. Andes Biotechnology has patents for Andes-1537 filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), providing them patent rights in at least 16 patent systems worldwide. Because of these protections, Austral Capital fund manager Felipe Camposano expressed excitement on behalf of the company, noting that Andes Biotechnologies “has the scientific and management expertise to translate the company’s vision into reality.”
Because of this enthusiastic support from investors, Andes Biotechnologies now has an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application active and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, allowing them to proceed with clinical trials. The best part is that Andes’ IND approval came in 2015 and they announced transition into the second half of phase 1 clinical trials in 2019, so Andes-1537 is already well on its way to improving the lives of cancer patients around the world.
Clinical trials are a difficult filter, however. Only 25–50% of all new cancer drugs that reach randomized clinical trials produce successful treatments, and every one of those drugs requires millions of dollars in funding to even enter trials. While cancer drugs consistently receive some funding from the National Institutes of Health through their “cooperative clinical trial infrastructure,” it is the only disease that receives this funding.
Instead, the vast majority of drugs require substantial private support from investors to make it through clinical trials, and without patent rights those firms would not provide that support. Fortunately for cancer patients around the world, the PCT and its member nations offer robust patent protections, enabling companies like Andes Biotechnologies to push their new drugs through clinical trials and onto the market. With these partnerships built on patents, investors can use their wealth for the benefit of humanity, innovators can afford to research healthcare innovations, and, most importantly, people around the world can get the latest in cancer treatments.
