- Rakuten Medical aims to bring its innovative
cancer treatment technology Alluminox™ to India
SAN
DIEGO, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/
-- Rakuten Medical, Inc. (Rakuten Medical) has newly
established its subsidiary in India, Rakuten Medical Private Limited
(Rakuten Medical India) to strengthen its position in the country
and expand its presence worldwide. The Mumbai-based company plans to develop and
commercialize treatments based on the Alluminox™ platform in
India, beginning with head and
neck cancer. To ensure a strong footprint, Mickey Mikitani, Co-CEO
of Rakuten Medical recently visited leading medical institutions in
the country to exchange views on the current status and future
development of cancer treatment.
In India, the total number of
new cancer patients in 2020 was over 1.3 million – the
4th largest population of cancer patients in the
world1. Particulary, there is a high occurrence of head
and neck cancer, which accounts for 30% of all cancer
types2. India accounts
for ~26% of all head and neck cancer cases globally1.
The majority of these patients present with advanced
disease2, which also corresponds with poorer outcomes
and higher mortality rates.
Rakuten Medical's proprietary technology platform Alluminox
combines the power of light with drug, device, and other related
components to develop new, innovative therapies. Illuminating the
targeted cells with non-thermal light activates the cell-bound
drug, which leads to rapid and selective cell killing. This therapy
has potential to be a 5th pillar of cancer
treatment.
"I am very pleased to have established our own base in
India and to be able to exchange
views with prominent Indian medical professionals. By transforming
treatment in India where there is
a significant number of cancer patients and high unmet needs in the
world, we hope to contribute to the lives of as many patients as
possible." said Mickey Mikitani, Co-CEO of Rakuten Medical.
"Rakuten Medical's technology has an unprecedented mechanism of
action that selectively and precisely attacks targeted cells," said
Dr. Rajendra Achyut Badwe, Director
and Head of Surgical Oncology at Tata Memorial Centre. "We are
delighted that Rakuten Medical is bringing its completely new
cancer treatment to India. We will
collect robust data to ascertain efficacy as well as effectiveness
of this novel therapy in head and neck cancers."
Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Founder
and Chairman at Narayana Health said, "We are welcoming the
pioneering technology of Rakuten Medical, which will potentially
help people in India lead
healthier lives, and happy to support Rakuten Medical in its
mission to 'Conquer cancer'."
1
J Ferlay, M Ervik, F Lam, et al, eds. Global Cancer
Observatory: Cancer Today. International Agency for Research on
Cancer; 2020. Accessed, August
23, 2022. http://gco.iarc.fr/today
2
Kulkarni MR. Head and Neck Cancer Burden in India. Int J Head and Neck Surg
2013;4(1):29-35
* Rakuten Medical's therapies based on Alluminox™ platform
are investigational outside of Japan, and not approved in India for investigational or commercial
use.
About Rakuten Medical, Inc.
Rakuten Medical,
Inc. is a global biotechnology company developing and
commercializing precision, cell targeting investigational therapies
on its Alluminox™ platform, which, in pre-clinical
studies, have been shown to induce rapid and selective cell killing
and tumor necrosis. Outside of Japan, Alluminox therapies have
not yet been approved as safe or effective by any regulatory
authority. The company's first drug developed on the
Alluminox platform, ASP-1929, has received approval from the
Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, and is currently
the subject of a global phase 3 clinical trial for recurrent head
and neck cancer. Rakuten Medical is committed to its
mission to conquer cancer by delivering our innovative treatments
as quickly and safely as possible to as many patients all over the
world as possible. The company has offices in 6 countries,
including the United States, where
it is headquartered, Japan,
the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, and Switzerland. For more information,
visit www.rakuten-med.com.
About Alluminox™ platform
The Alluminox™ platform is an investigational
platform based on a cancer therapy called
photoimmunotherapy, which was developed by
Dr. Hisataka Kobayashi and team from the National
Cancer Institute in the United
States. Rakuten Medical is developing
the Alluminox platform as a technology consisting of a
drug, device, and other related components. The drug component of
the platform consists of a targeting moiety conjugated with one or
more dyes leading to selective cell surface binding. The device
component consists of a light source that locally illuminates the
targeted cells with non-thermal light to transiently activate the
drug. Pre-clinical data have shown that this activation elicits
rapid and selective necrosis of targeted cells through a
biophysical process that compromises the membrane integrity of the
targeted cells. Therapies developed on Alluminox may
also result in local and systemic innate and adaptive immune
activation due to immunogenic cell death of the
targeted cancer cells and/or the removal of targeted
immunosuppressive cells within the tumor microenvironment.
Outside of Japan, Alluminox therapies have not yet
been approved as safe or effective by any regulatory
authority.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward looking statements that
correspond to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include various
risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that may cause Rakuten
Medical's business plans and results to differ from the anticipated
results and expectations expressed in these statements. These
"forward looking statements" contain information about the status
and development of our products, including the Alluminox™ platform,
as well as other regulatory and marketing authorization efforts,
the potential benefits, efficacy, and safety of therapies created
using the Alluminox platform, and the status of regulatory filings.
The approval and commercial success of the product may not be
achieved. Forward looking statements relate to the potential
benefits, efficacy, and safety of our therapies, and the status of
regulatory filings. Such statements may include words such as
"expect," "believe," "hope," "estimate," "looks as though,"
"anticipate," "intend," "may," "suggest," "plan," "strategy,"
"will," and "do", and are based on our current beliefs. In
addition, this press release uses terms such as "important,"
"notable," and "abnormal" to express opinions about clinical trial
data. Ongoing clinical trial studies include various risks and
uncertainties, in particular, problems that arise during the
manufacturing stage of our therapies, the occurrence of adverse
safety events, situations in failure to demonstrate therapeutic
benefits, and other various risks and uncertainties, both
reasonable and unreasonable. For this reason, actual results,
including regulatory approvals and uncertainties in the
commercialization process of our therapies, may differ from
published information. Except to the extent required by applicable
law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update this or any
other forward-looking statement, whether because of new
information, future developments or events, changes in assumptions,
changes in the factors affecting forward-looking statements. If one
or more forward-looking statement(s) is updated, no inference
should be drawn that additional updates will be made to those or
other forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE Rakuten Medical, Inc.