SonoTarg

The SonoTarg team is both delighted and proud to announce that it has been awarded an ‘Innovation Passport’ as part of the UK’s Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA’s) ‘Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway’ (ILAP) programme. Recognising SonoTarg’s lead candidate ST-001 for pancreatic cancer as a promising innovative technology in an area of unmet medical need, ILAP will enable SonoTarg to benefit from expedited and increased access to medical, regulatory and scientific stakeholders, establishing an access ready approach to the clinical development of ST-001.

Nigel Trim, CEO said “The award of this innovative medicine designation represents a pivotal milestone for SonoTarg. By leveraging the opportunities that ILAP brings, we anticipate streamlined engagement with regulatory authorities, potentially reducing data packages and opening multiple licensing pathways. This award validates the potential of our lead product to change the treatment landscape for pancreatic cancer and will assist SonoTarg in delivering ST-001 to patients in the minimum time possible”.

SonoTarg’s game-changing microbubble drug delivery system featured in a speech by Professor Mark Taylor (CMO), a leading hepatobiliary surgeon in NI, at a prestigious charity event last week.

Speaking at the event hosted by His Grace, The Duke of Abercorn, Prof Taylor said: “Research continues into the disease in both NI Universities. At Ulster University, Professor John Callan, Professor Tony McHale, and myself, have developed a microbubble drug delivery system that in the next year is hoped to reach human study in Belfast as its first trial centre.

Whilst over at Queen’s University Belfast Professor Chris Scott, internationally renowned for his work in the development of antibody and nanomedicine-based therapies for cancer treatment alongside Professor Dan Longley from the Patrick Johnston Centre for Cancer with his expertise in mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer care continue to make positive strides forward.”

Sonotarg’s targeted ultrasound therapy using microbubbles for the treatment of solid cancer tumours, including pancreatic, breast and prostate cancers is showing great promise and could help physicians to specifically activate therapeutics at the site of the tumour, minimising the effects associated with conventional chemotherapy.”

Mr Taylor further spoke about NIPANC’s transformation from a fledgling support group set up in 2014 into the highly effective campaigning organisation it is today.
Friday’s event was also attended by the Minister of Health, Mr Robin Swann, and other senior DoH officials.

In a statement Minister Swann spoke about a unique partnership between the DoH, NIPANC and Pancreatic Cancer UK to improve patient pathways and outcomes in NI; the results and benefits of which are likely to be rolled out across the whole UK.

He said: “I am delighted that through collaboration with NIPANC and Pancreatic Cancer UK, Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK to commit to implementing an optimal care pathway for pancreatic cancer. I am committed to ensuring that key transformation projects can be progressed.
Partnerships between the Department, clinicians, service users and charities can help us to reform cancer pathways, leading to more sustainable cancer services and better outcomes for patients.”

His Grace, the Duke of Abercorn held the event for NIPANC in honour of his former House Manager of 20-years, June McElhill whose brother Ross Alexander died of pancreatic cancer at just 37 years old. Ms McElhill was one of the founding members of the charity’s original support group.

Today is International Women’s Day honouring the amazing women who campaigned for women’s rights and those who continue to do so. SonoTarg wants to add its voice and is celebrating an incredible colleague we have the privilege to work with helping us in our mission to deliver a treatment with improved therapeutic outcomes for patients suffering from pancreatic cancer or other solid tumour cancers.

Pictured is Sharla Roddy (23) from Derry undertaking HPLC analysis of a product intermediate. Sharla plays an important role in developing our new microbubble technology. It uses a unique delivery system combining the power of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy activtated by ultrasound and designed to specifically target cancer tumours with pin-point precision.

Sharla completed her master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Ulster University Coleraine Campus achieving a First Class Honours. A placement year within the University involving a project using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) positioned her an ideal candidate to work with us as a Quality Control Analyst. Sharla is responsible for the running of the HPLC systems as well as the development of new HPLC methods of sample analysis.

A formidable scientist playing her part in potentially changing conventional chemotherapy for the better. We are very lucky to have her as part of our team.

More about our work on www.sonotarg.com

Today is World Cancer Day; a global initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)

The campaign theme ‘Close the Care Gap’ is actively engaged in raising awareness, sharing knowledge and encouraging governments and world leaders to take positive action to prevent millions of deaths to cancer and ensure equality for all in healthcare provision.

SonoTarg is playing a determined part in changing the terrible statistics associated with solid tumour cancers such as pancreatic, breast and prostate. Our new microbubble technology, using a unique delivery system combining the power of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy activated by ultrasound, is being designed to specifically target cancer tumours with pin-point precision.

Our research is showing much promise and could provide opportunity to improve patient experience while reducing the length of treatment time. That means saving lives, less cost and more available time and resources. To find out more about our work, follow the link here www.sonotarg.com

SonoTarg is developing a new targeted ultrasound therapy using microbubbles for the treatment of solid cancer tumours including pancreatic, breast and prostate cancers. It is showing real promise and could help physicians to specifically activate therapeutics at the site of the tumour, minimising the effects associated with conventional chemotherapy.

Professor Mark Taylor, a leading NI Hepato-Pancreato Biliary (HPB) Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer for SonoTarg said there were two main benefits of the new technology.

“More of the drug goes straight into the tumour, thereby reducing the nasty side effects on other healthy parts of the body. When the microbubbles burst, the critical processes that drive that event help carry the drug deeper into the tissue resulting in a response that causes necrosis or death of that tumour.

In addition, the chemotherapy contained in the bubbles is less than 10% of the concentration normally given systemically into the vein which then travels around the whole body.

Mr Taylor added: “What SonoTarg is developing through its novel treatment, if you can imagine, is like a single dart programmed to hit the bullseye. It has the potential to change cancer treatment for the better.”

Is the future of chemotherapy about to change?

At SonoTarg, we are developing a novel approach to targeted cancer therapy using ultrasound activated microbubble technology. It’s a unique delivery system combining the power of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy to specifically target cancer tumours with pin-point precision. Think of a darts player, hitting the bullseye every single time.

The treatment is delivered non-invasively by systemic injection and activated using low intensity ultrasound focused precisely on the tumour. Bursting bubbles inside the tumour ensures active targeted delivery minimising collateral toxicity and has shown a remarkable efficacy at only five to ten percent of a standard chemotherapy dose. Conventional chemotherapy agents currently lack any form of tumour targeting.

The good news is, the much more efficient technology is likely to provide opportunity to improve patients’ experience and therapeutic effect, while reducing treatment time too.

To find out more about our work, please visit us on www.sonotarg.com

At SonoTarg, we hope you have enjoyed the festivities over Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. We certainly are as the development of our new approach to targeted cancer therapy using ultrasound activated microbubble technology enters an exciting new phase. The year end gives us opportunity to look back on some of the highlights of 2023. We have had several successful investment rounds and will enter a third next year. Keeping our investors informed is important to us.

In March, we invited them to join us for a presentation and laboratory tour at the University of Ulster’s School of Pharmacy, Coleraine Campus. The visit was well received as were our numerous presentations on the benefits of the new technology by SonoTarg’s Chief Medical Officer, leading pancreatic surgeon, Professor Mark Taylor. He addressed top pancreatic cancer teams from around the UK at the Royal College of Surgeons Pancreatic Cancer Research Symposium in London and more recently, at a similar event at the Patrick C Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s University Belfast. The technology is showing signs of real promise in the treatment of prostate cancer too; the findings of which were published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. Last but not least, we have been setting up a new spin-off subsidiary company to support our own and other research work. More details to be released early in the New Year. Exciting times and new developments ahead. Health and happiness to you all in 2024.

Pictured left to right is the SonoTarg team

Professor Tony McHale - Chief Technical Officer
Professor John Callan - Chief Scientific Officer
Jack Wright – Research and Development Scientist
Keiran Logan – Research and Development Manager
Sharla Roddy – Laboratory Assistant

SonoTarg recently welcomed news announced at a Pancreatic Cancer Research Symposium at Queen's University Belfast of a new partnership approach in Northern Ireland to improving pancreatic cancer patient pathways.

The new collaboration brings together NI's only local pancreatic cancer charity, NIPANC with the national organisation Pancreatic Cancer UK and the Department of Health in NI to develop a regional care pathway for local pancreatic cancer patients. It will be of benefit across the UK and further afield.

Our CMO, Mark Taylor, also a special advisor to the Department of Health in NI launched the new initiative alongside Dawn Crosby, Head of Devolved Nations for Pancreatic Cancer UK and Ivan McMinn, MBE, a Trustee of NIPANC and pancreatic cancer survivor. Mark is to chair a Clinical Reference Group that will involve making a number of minor changes to current practice, increasing communication and awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease and ensuring pancreatic cancer patients across the region receive a consistent standard of care.

He said: “This is a significant step forward in ensuring all pancreatic cancer patients across NI have a faster, fairer pathway through their diagnosis, treatment and care.”

A privilege to have attended and showcased at this event and to hear about other exciting developments in pancreatic cancer research including new early diagnosis methods, therapeutic agents, planned clinical trials and the latest advances in pancreatic cancer research.

Professor Mark Taylor, one of NI’s leading pancreatic and hepatobiliary surgeons, also our Chief Medical Officer presenting our Microbubble Technology at a Pancreatic Cancer Research Symposium at Queen’s University Belfast recently.

Great discussion on our work to innovate chemotherapy at the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research in a forum which also looked at new early diagnosis methods, therapeutic agent, planned clinical trials and the latest advances in pancreatic cancer research.

The event, held on the last day of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, allowed us to explain more about how our microbubble technology uses a unique delivery system, combining the power of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy to specifically target cancer tumours with pin-point precision and how the bubbles are burst using ultra-sound into the heart of the tumour.

Speaking to the public, patients, families, academics and researchers, Mr Taylor said: “The two main benefits of the new technology are much lowerdoses of chemotherapy can be used as more of the drug goes straight to the tumour rather than other healthy parts of the body, therefore reducing sideeffects. It also helps that when the bubble bursts, the critical processes that drive that event help carry the drug deeper into the tumour tissue.”

He added: “Novel therapies such as this are a major focus of research at present. It’s incredible this potentially much more efficient and targetedtechnology is being developed locally and may provide opportunity to improve patients experience while reducing the length of treatment time as well as change the terrible statistics associated with this devastating disease.”

To find out more about our work, follow the link here https://sonotarg.com

Could Microscopic Bubbles Hold The Key To New Pancreatic And Other Solid Organ Tumour Treatment?

Hope has been an emerging theme of our 2023 campaign. This year, we have focused on the stories of five remarkable individuals who have survived a diagnosis of .

Two, including NIPANC Trustee, Ivan McMinn (61) and 79-year-old dairy farmer, William Sproule from the Sperrin mountains are among only 1% of people with the disease to live past ten years. They are living proof people can and do survive pancreatic cancer.

The good news is, new treatments are on the horizon which could significantly help improve survival rates of this devastating disease.

A fascinating discussion between the University of Ulster’s, Professor John Callan developing the technology at SonoTarg and leading NI Pancreatic Surgeon, Professor Mark Taylor.

Read more about the potential benefits here: https://www.nipanc.org/post/could-microscopic-bubbles-hold-the-key-to-new-pancreatic-and-other-solid-organ-tumour-treatment

At SonoTarg we are committed to developing a better treatment outcome for those diagnosed with solid tumours such as pancreatic cancer, which is why we are joining Nipanc for their campaign, hoping to shed light on the important need for a better prognosis for these patients. Please familiarise yourself with the symptoms of pancreatic cancer and be persistent in seeking early diagnosis and treatment.

The team at SonoTarg have recently published their latest PCUK funded work investigating the potential of microbubble mediated chemo-sonodynamic therapy as a treatment for prostate cancer.

Read the paper via this link.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0939641123002722?dgcid=author

The SonoTarg platform comprises microbubbles loaded with a chemotherapy agent and a sonosensitiser, injected systemically.

Ultrasound is focused precisely on the tumour causing the microbubbles to oscillate and burst driving the chemotherapy through the vessel walls and into the tumour, the ultrasound also activates the sonosensitiser creating Reactive Oxygen Species which are also highly cytotoxic. Bursting the bubbles inside the tumour ensures active targeted delivery, minimises collateral toxicity and in animal models has shown remarkable efficacy at only a fraction of a standard chemotherapy dose.

Prof Mark Taylor a leading pancreatic surgeon said cases were likely to rise because of "increasing age, obesity and diabetes".

"We can see on the ground how pancreatic cancer referrals are increasing and we must strengthen services in our response," Prof Taylor said.

"It is concerning that the most common route to diagnosis was via emergency admissions and the majority of patients presented with advanced (stage four) cancer where the cancer has spread to a distant site."

Based on research co-developed between the Universities of Ulster and Oxford and in close collaboration with leading clinicians at Belfast Hospitals, the SonoTarg system combines the power of sonodynamic therapy and chemotherapy to specifically target cancer cells. A key challenge is the late stage at which pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed, when the risk associated with surgery and conventional chemotherapy are very high. By enabling targeted therapy with minimal side effects, SonoTarg is developing a potential alternative that could significantly improve the outcome for pancreatic cancer patients.

SonoTarg has developed a new approach to cancer therapy, combining the power of chemotherapy with sonodynamic therapy to target difficult to treat solid tumours.

Preclinical results show the combination of chemotherapy and sonodynamic therapy have remarkable efficacy at doses of only 5-10% of a standard chemotherapy dose thereby minimising off-target toxicity.

SonoTarg's first product is targeting pancreatic cancer and enrolment into a Phase I study will start in early 2024.

The technology is based on research co-developed between the Universities of Ulster and Oxford and in close collaboration with leading clinicians at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland.