GlioCure & Institut Curie announce partnership for the treatment of solid cancers, with the support of FINDMED

Institut Curie/Carnot Curie Cancer and GlioCure, a biotechnology company specialized in neuro-oncology, announce the launch of a collaborative research project with the support of FINDMED, one of the eight Carnot actions, as part of the CHICHE! program. The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to develop new treatments for solid cancers, which today account for 90% of human cancers.

GC01, GlioCure's most advanced drug candidate, is an anti-tumor peptide that has already demonstrated in vivo efficacy in models of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive brain tumor. GC01 acts by specifically blocking cell division through the inhibition of polymerization of TUBB3, a constituent molecule of microtubules, over-expressed in most brain tumors but also variably expressed in other solid cancers.

The team of Institut Curie/Carnot Curie Cancer's Pre-clinical Investigation Laboratory (LIP), led by Dr Didier Decaudin, which detains approximately 300 patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX), will evaluate the anti-tumor activity of GC01 in vivo, alone and in combination, on three panels of PDX from breast, ovarian and non-small-cell lung cancers over-expressing TUBB3.

This collaboration was fully supported by FINDMED, as explains Amaury Martin, PhD, head of the Technology Transfer Office at Institut Curie & Institut Carnot Curie Cancer:

This one-year project represents a total effort of approximately €200,000, the first quarter of which will be covered by the CHICHE program (CHallenge the Carnot Institutes in Chemistry and Health)! The program carried by the FINDMED program has been an essential lever to initiate this ambitious partnership between GlioCure and the teams of Institut Curie/Carnot Curie Cancer.

Louis-Marie Bachelot, CEO and co-founder of GlioCure, says:

We are delighted to be able to initiate this collaboration with Dr Decaudin's laboratory within the prestigious Institut Curie. LIP's expertise in patient-derived tumor xenografts is internationally recognized and Dr Decaudin's excellent knowledge of therapeutic peptides is a valuable additional asset. We would like to thank the FINDMED consortium without whose support this collaboration would certainly not have had the same dimension.

Dr Didier Decaudin, head of Institut Curie's Pre-clinical Investigation Laboratory, declares:

GC01 has shown promising results in the treatment of glioblastoma, whose prognosis is currently guarded. Therefore, the prospect of a strong anti-tumor activity of the compound on solid tumors expressing the therapeutic target, coupled with the study of its efficacy in association with standard treatments, fully meets the dual objective of Institut Curie's Pre-clinical Investigation Laboratory, i.e. to propose relevant models for the selection of innovative treatments, and to participate in the general process of developing new therapies in cancerology.

Damien Salauze, Chief Operating Officer at FINDMED, concludes:

FINDMED's mission is to help VSEs, SMEs and ETIs gain access to the expertise of the Carnot Institutes, and I am delighted that FINDMED was able to finance the initial and preparatory part of the work on the models, without whose results GlioCure could not have been involved.