The Vision: "To Become the First Line of Treatment for Cancer"

Without detracting from the importance of COVID, which rattled our world at the beginning of this decade, there's no doubt that the second deadliest epidemic in our time, following heart disease, is cancer. According to estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), over 19 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually, expected to rise to about 29 million by 2040. More than half of these patients will need chemotherapy as an essential part of their treatment protocol. Despite chemotherapy being a relatively effective standard treatment against cancer, it is accompanied by severe side effects that seriously harm the patients' quality of life and often their health.

But have you imagined a world where it would be possible to use the effectiveness of chemotherapy without its inherent disadvantages? The medical startup Intragel Therapeutics aims to change this situation, striving to accomplish a genuine revolution by providing an alternative to toxic systemic chemotherapy and other toxic systemic treatments. The model: delivering therapies directly into the tumor, where it works in a focused manner, without collateral implications, so the body won't have to cope with the associated side effects.

One-time injection "for life"
The Intragel story begins in the summer of 2020. It was shortly after the mother of Dr. Peter Siman, a chemist with a PhD from Ben-Gurion University, who did his post-doctoral work at Berkeley, died of lung cancer. Neither surgery nor chemotherapy were appropriate in her case, while radiotherapy and immunotherapy failed. At that time, Dr. Siman joined forces with Prof. Avi Domb, the inventor of the technology, who has devised numerous inventions in the medical field (currently, the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science, previously head of the School of Pharmacy at the Hebrew University, and more), and Avner Geva (entrepreneur and biomedical engineer, graduate of Yale University and the Technion).

In Prof. Domb's laboratory, and later in the company laboratories, a new gel-like polymer was developed, injectable with a standard needle and syringe. The unique, stable, and innovative gel is suitable for delivering drugs in very high concentrations. This makes possible a one-time injection, "for life," directly into the tumor, using a high concentration of the long-acting drug-gel combination. The gel is based on safe fatty acids, therefore it is "hydrophobic," which means that it fixes itself inside the tumor after injection, and over two months, gradually breaks down into fatty acids, releasing the drug embedded in it. The high concentration inside the tumor improves treatment effectiveness, reduces tumor size, and eventually eliminates it entirely. All this without any side effects.

"Our vision is to treat every type of solid cancer in the body, which actually amounts to 90% of cancer types, safely and effectively," declares Dr. Siman, as he explains the rationale behind the research and development that the company is pursuing. "The goal is to treat the tumor itself, without harming healthy tissues, without the need for invasive surgery or administering toxic systemic chemotherapy, through a single injection of the compound that resides inside the tumor and continuously releases the chemotherapeutic agent into it."

How does this process work in practice?
"The application of the compound is easy and quick, using a standard needle and syringe. Two hours later, patients can be discharged and continue their daily routine. And most importantly, the treatment has no side effects. The long-acting effect of the treatment can replace a series of chemotherapy treatments that usually lasts about two months."

The company began its research and development work in early 2021, after receiving funding from the Innovation Authority and the NGT3 venture capital fund, located in Nazareth, under the Technological Incubators program. At the end of 2022, it received the long-awaited approval from the Ministry of Health to proceed with the initial cisplatin-based compound, used as first-line treatment in head and neck tumors, in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The trial is currently being conducted in a series of hospitals in Israel, including Hadassah Ein Kerem, Ichilov, Assuta Ashdod, and Carmel, and was recently expanded to Albania. Simultaneously, the treatment was injected into patients at a medical institution in Germany, as part of compassionate treatments for patients who had exhausted all treatment options and had remaining focused tumors that were not responding to treatment.

According to Dr. Siman: "The compound has been tested in eight patients to date. These are patients whom the healthcare system had "given up on" because of non-response to existing treatments, resistance, recurrence, or aggressive spread. Not one of the patients experienced the side effects characteristic of chemotherapy. In three cases, the tumor completely disappeared and in four others there was significant tumor shrinkage, at a rate of tens of percentages."

To such an extent?..
"It is difficult to describe the satisfaction these cases bring. For example, we managed to save a patient's foot from amputation after the compound caused the disappearance of a tumor that was resistant to radiation and systemic chemotherapy. These are moments that are hard to describe in words. It was an incredible event that gave us hope that we are on the right path!"

Against which types of tumors is the drug effective?
"Currently, we are focusing on head and neck tumors that for decades haven't received an effective therapeutic solution. The current compound is suitable for any type of solid cancer that is sensitive to cisplatin and its derivatives, and has already been tested on soft tissue sarcoma. Our vision is to establish the technology as the standard first-line treatment for all types of solid cancers with any drug available on the market."

To date, Intragel has raised about $4 million. The company is currently in a Series A fundraising round of about $20 million, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, with the goal of continuing the accelerated development and completing the Phase 2 trials in head and neck cancer patients. In the meantime, the company has already reached understandings with two of the world's largest pharma giants that are looking into possibilities for future collaboration after the completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials.

Intragel therapeutics
Field: Pharma, Biotechnology. Year established: 2021. Founders: Dr. Peter Siman, Prof. Avi Domb, Avner Geva. Vision: Treatment of malignant tumors using a single injection, delivering chemotherapy directly to the tumor without side effects and damage to surrounding cells.

to the company website>>

In collaboration with Intragel Therapeutics