Happy November from the people at Welichem.
We are happy to report in this monthˇs Newsletter that our Phase I Clinical Trial is proceeding well in Montreal; the fifth cohort of the six scheduled are currently receiving treatment with our WBI-1001. We are pleased with the progress and we are excited about the prospects when we receive further preliminary data.
Meantime, we are committed to the further development of another promising drug candidate, WBI-2100, for cancer treatment.
As shown by our previous experiments, WBI-2100 specifically inhibited solid tumours over hematopoietic cancers, and enhanced the benefit of leading chemotherapeutic drugs against solid tumours. Solid tumours account for 67% of all malignant types. In the United States alone, there were over 1.3 million people diagnosed with solid tumours in 2006. Since WBI-2100 has shown some commonality of efficacy across a range of solid tumour types, it may have applicability in multiple indications and thus could have increased use and sales.
The global anti-cancer market had an estimated value of $47 billion in 2006. Due to the high risk-to-benefit ratio of currently available treatments, the market is still largely undervalued. According to the World Cancer Report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new cancer diagnoses in 2000 could increase by 50% to 15 million new cases in 2020. This figure is based on one of the most comprehensive global examinations of the disease to date; it is speculated that the increase might be caused mainly by changes in environment and lifestyle.
Rapidly increasing cancer incidence, combined with the lack of significant advances in chemotherapy for this metastatic disease, could increase the value of the global market for cancer (including the cancer treatment and supportive care markets) to over $65 billion by 2012. From the human healthcare perspective the need is very strong and from the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry the economic returns are very high for successful drugs. We believe that WBI-2100 has exceptional potential to address this urgent problem in a market with enormous potential.
We wish you a happy November, including a Happy Thanksgiving for our friends in the United States.
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