Junior Pharma Company Picks Up Antibody Platform From Major

By: AllPennyStocks.com News

October 1, 2009
In the world of pharmaceuticals, new developments are making their presence felt all the time. Sometimes those news items involve a larger company joining forces with smaller ones to create synthesis and greater efficiencies, as the firms gain more strength to get their products to the patent office, and from there, to market.

The last day of September, and of the last quarter, proved significant in the commercial drug game for Edmonton-based Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSX-Venture:QPT), a key player in the fight against cancers and dermatological ailments. For it was on that day that QPT bought a portfolio of immunotherapeutic antibodies as well as related intellectual property and other assets from Montreal-based Paladin Labs Inc. (TSX:PLB), in exchange for five million Quest PharmaTech shares, royalties on future revenues and cash.

PLB, meantime, will continue to develop its Chimigen(R) Platform Technology to fight Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and other diseases.

QPT is a company committed to the development and commercialization of new pharmaceutical products. It is developing a series of products for the treatment of cancer and dermatological conditions based on its unique photodynamic and sonodynamic therapy platforms.

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is increasingly used in the practice of medicine and is the basis for the pioneering treatment for age-related wet macular degeneration. The principle involves a drug (the photosensitizer) which is relatively harmless until it is illuminated by light of various wavelengths. The drug is delivered to the target tissue as selectively as possible and then the target tissue is illuminated. This activates the photosensitizer which then destroys the diseased tissue, predominately through the action of singlet oxygen.

“It is also thought,” says Quest literature, “that PDT–mediated destruction of cancerous tissue may also serve to mobilize the immune system to further eliminate cancerous cells, through an ‘uncloaking’ of masked tumour antigens”.

QPT has various products in different stages of development. One product, concerned with hair removal, is now in Phase II Clinical Trials; another, to fight actinic keratosis, just finished its Phase I clinical trials; still another, aimed at prostate cancer is in late-stage preclinical development.

News of the Paladin sale added a penny to QPT’s stock price to nine cents – a jump of 12.5% in one day – putting the price in the upper region of a 52-week range peaking at 13.5 cents last November, though not quite as much a bargain as the 1.5 cent price the stock elicited at its worst, just before last Christmas.

Those who look for innovative drug companies to add value to their portfolios should warm to the news that came out of Montreal this week, and give QPT serious scrutiny.

Copyright © 2009 AllPennyStocks.com. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of AllPennyStocks.com's content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AllPennyStocks.com. AllPennyStocks.com shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.