March 27, 2017.
The sea covers around 70% of the earth, and contains around 97% of the world's water. It's also home to almost 240,000 species (that have been identified so far), from mammals and fish, down to bacteria and viruses. However, as a resource, it is still untapped.
Bioprospecting is the discovery and development of new products based on resources from the natural world. Hundreds of plant-based gargles, pills, infusions and ointments date back to Ancient Egypt. Between 1981 and 2014, around two-thirds of the small molecule drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration were derived from or inspired by natural sources, according to the Journal of Natural Products.
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A Ssnapshot of Late Stage Development:
PharmaMar
PharmaMar is a Madrid, Spain-based company with a focus on anticancer drugs from marine sources. Its first drug onto the market was Yondelis. Plitidepsin and lurbinectedin, both derived from sea squirts, are partnered with Chugai.
The plitidepsin Phase 3 trial in combination with dexamethasone in multiple myeloma will read out in the second half of 2017, and Phase 2 trials are under way in T-cell lymphoma as a monotherapy and in multiple myeloma as part of a triple therapy. Lurbinectedin is being assessed as a single agent in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, with a readout in the second half of 2017, and other clinical trials are under way in small cell lung cancer, breast cancer and solid tumors.
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