VasoDynamics: Born of sadness but designed to generate many happy outcomes

To see such a young and happy life cut down so early and so suddenly never left Fiona and she pretty much decided on the spot that such tragedies couldn’t simply be accepted.

She herself decided as young as 11 years old that she would pursue a career in healthcare but that the approach she wanted to follow would not be reliant on medicines but how to live, wherever possible, without such a dependency.

She wanted to address the therapy of the soul and the lifestyle of patients and not stand idly by and watch victims suffer and slowly perish on a tide of chemotherapy, for example.

So when the company she fashioned out of love tells the world it offers a patient-friendly approach to treating cancer this comes from the heart. It is what VasoDynamics is all about.

And when it talks about being with patients throughout their lives, the team means it – ever prepared to help nurse sufferers into long, old age through sensible living practices rather than medical dependancy.

The company is part-based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst which itself provides a calming and collaborative environment in which to build such a business and develop the aims at the heart of it.

VasoDynamics is a pharmaceutical development company but it is oh so different from the normal embodiment of such a description. As Fiona explains: “Our focus is the development of patient-friendly and preventative therapies that make a major, positive difference to cancer patients’ well-being and quality of life.”

The approach aims to take pain, suffering and indignity out of the equation for cancer patients. To Fiona and her closely knit team the fact that this strategy also carries significant payer savings potential is to a degree incidental.

It remains a relatively young company with dynamic but caring executives with a shared vision to improve the standard of cancer care globally. Having reviewed its successes in this country and further afield, it is easy to see why VasoDynamics has already been such a success.

The enterprise is developing a number of cost-efficient treatments, all of which target the prevention of debilitating and often dose-limiting complications of cancer therapy.

Fiona adds: “We take great pride in our culture of scientific and developmental rigour and our programmes are based on robust science from world-leading research bodies.”

The venture is building a really strong Board of industry experts to accelerate market access and these directors share the ethos of the founder in placing a humane approach at the core of its technologies and treatments.

Fiona says: “With our platform products and clinical programmes progressing rapidly, supported by the successful completion of a NG11-2 Phase-Ib trial for the prevention of severe mouth ulceration in patients with head and neck cancers undergoing chemoradiotherapy/radiotherapy, it is vital that we strengthen the Board with the necessary industry experience to lead the company into the next stage of global clinical development and market access.

“We are delighted to announce the appointments of Dr Laurence Reilly, Mr Darren Fergus, Mrs Alexandra Hughes-Wilson and Mrs Hilary Birrell as new Board members, with Dr Laurence Reilly as the Chairperson. They will bring invaluable experience to the Board leadership and governance as we enter the next value inflection phase of clinical and commercialisation development.”

The company focused early on common cancers, such as head and neck cancer and breast cancer, but over time has considerably broadened its sphere of capabilities.

Its programmes are designed to prevent the common complications of a huge range of cancer therapies, including mouth ulceration, dermatitis, and (permanent) hair-loss – “thereby improving both treatment outcomes and patients’ quality of life.”

Fiona adds: “All our programs are being developed for topical administration, both before and during cancer treatment, for optimal patient convenience and cost effectiveness.

“Topical administration and rapid onset of action both reduce the need for additional patient visits to clinic.”

The company’s technology platform has so far generated three formulations with five lead products, all of which have generated compelling results in the laboratory and initial human studies.

The IP portfolio is protected by a number of global patents and based on groundbreaking research from leading global Universities in US and UK that excel in the fields of chemotherapy toxicology and radioprotection.

Just this month the company revealed that on the Phase-1b study, using NG11-2 vasoconstrictor mouthwash to reduce and prevent severe Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis (RIOM), had been completed. The results will be made available on the VasoDynamics website and public websites such as ISRCTN and clinical trials.gov.

In brief, a total of 15 patients with head and neck cancer were successfully enrolled in this Phase-1b study with daily oral topical treatment of NG11-2 prior to each fractional radiation dose throughout their radiotherapy regime, for up to seven weeks. Four dose levels of NG11-2 were tested and total of 9 patients treated at the highest dose level. The results indicated:-

• No Dose Limiting Toxicities were seen among all four dose levels tested, and the Recommended Phase 2 Dose (RP2D) was determined accordingly.
• NG11-2 was considered well tolerated in the patient population included in this study.
• NG11-2 showed positive preliminary efficacy results with decreases in the duration and the incidence of severe RIOM, and increases in the time-to-onset of severe RIOM observed with escalating dose levels.
• The results from this study support the continued development of NG11-2.

Fiona said: “We are delighted to announce the completion of the Clinical Study Report with the successful results which delivers an exciting development milestone for the NG11-2 programme, and also represents a safety validation milestone for all the topical vasoconstrictor platform programmes. We look forward to moving NG11-2 and the other vasoconstrictor platform programmes into the next stage of pivotal development.”

Business is business. But at the heart of it all, Fiona will never forget where it all began – at the age of 11 with the tragic loss of her best friend. The fact she will always remember that fateful time as if it were yesterday might well be the saving of thousands of cancer sufferers all over the world in years to come.