ONX-0801 (BGC 945) is an experimental drug that has been developed to target

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

. It is a

folate receptor alpha Folate receptor 1 (Folate receptor alpha, FOLR1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''FOLR1'' gene. The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the folate receptor (FOLR) family. Members of this family have a high affinity for fo ...

mediated

thymidylate synthase inhibitor Thymidine monophosphate (TMP), also known as thymidylic acid (conjugate base thymidylate), deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP), or deoxythymidylic acid (conjugate base deoxythymidylate), is a nucleotide that is used as a monomer in DNA. It is an ...

. ONX-0801 was originally developed by BTG and the

Institute of Cancer Research The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Ma ...

in the UK, and subsequently licensed to

Onyx Pharmaceuticals Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. has been a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. The company developed and marketed medicines for the treatment of cancer. Onyx was founded in 1992 by Kevin J. Kinsella and Frank M ...

for clinical development. It is designed to selectively target tumour tissues of certain kinds of cancer. It is poorly absorbed into most cells, but is actively transported by folate receptor alpha (FRα), which is usually only expressed at low levels in the

apical membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extra ...

of some specialised tissues, but is expressed at much higher levels in some subtypes of

. This causes the drug to accumulate selectively in tumour tissues, while healthy tissues are only exposed to a much lower concentration. In 2017, it received press coverage following the successful completion of a

Phase I clinical trial The phases of clinical research are the stages in which scientists conduct experiments with a health intervention to obtain sufficient evidence for a process considered effective as a medical treatment. For drug development, the clinical phases ...

References

Experimental cancer drugs {{antineoplastic-drug-stub