PharmaGap is reporting encouraging results from the first pre-clinical animal tests for its lead anti-cancer drug PhGalpha1.

The company says it took 28 days for colon cancer tumours to become established and grow in mice treated with PhGalpha1 in combination with a widely used chemotherapeutic agent, as opposed to 14 days in a non-treated control group. The treatment also slowed the growth of tumours. PharmaGap says the test results are consistent with earlier in vitro tests showing that PhGalpha1 has a significant impact in reducing the degree to which multi-drug resistance arises in chemotherapy treatment.

The treatment also proved effective in delaying the onset of breast cancer tumours by nine days compared to non-treated mice. In addition, tumour analysis revealed that untreated tumour cancer cells exhibited aggressive re-growth, while treated cancer cells were essentially benign.

PhGalpha1 was administered to fifty mice in 72-hour cycles over periods of up to 75 days and the company says no evidence of toxicity was observed.

"These tests with PhGalpha1 in nude mice are the first in a series of animal studies, which will continue in 2006. We are delighted with the results of this first study that confirm the efficacy and low toxicity of this compound," PharmaGap's chief scientific officer Dr. Jenny Phipps said in a statement.