Six years ago, a cancer researcher in Houston told Greg Colip about a molecular glue that – when combined with a type of sugar and another substance – could help doctors more easily detect cancer.
Colip, an attorney, passed the idea to his brother, Terry, an investment banker in Denver.
Within two weeks, the duo had licensed the technology, and, soon after, they formed CellPoint, based in Centennial.
CellPoint and other companies are developing molecular imaging agents. These are injected into patients to allow the detection of disease. CellPoint is also pursuing cancer treatment at the cellular level, such as embedding radioactive material inside the cell’s DNA.
“Molecular imaging is revolutionizing medicine,” said Dr. Henry Wagner, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “Medicine has moved from looking at the whole body to looking at the cells to looking at the actual chemical processes within cells.”
Cancer kills about 1,500 Americans per day, trailing heart disease as the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to statistics released this month by the American Cancer Society.
Imaging agents injected into patients is a medical sector with sales of $4.5 billion worldwide, according to a 2005 report by researcher Kalorama Information. Giants such as Siemens, General Electric, Toshiba and Royal Philips Electronics are making big bets on such research.
In 2003, CellPoint struck a partnership with Netherlands-based Philips, which provided financial and technical support. CellPoint employs about 12 people between its operations here and in Houston. It has been granted six patents and is seeking 10 more.
CellPoint’s first imaging agent is currently completing phase II and III trials, and the company will soon seek federal approval. CellPoint is tentatively planning an initial public offering for the end of this year but has not yet filed an S-1 registration statement, Terry Colip said.
“Pre-disease” state
Another imaging company, Cambridge, Mass.-based Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc., is planning a $75 million IPO to help fund the development of drugs that diagnose the cause of chest pain and treat cancer, according to regulatory filings.
“Even one agent that can be used in diagnostic and therapeutic applications could have a market value of close to $1 billion during the lifetime of its patent,” according to the Kalorama report.
There are several hundred companies working to develop molecular agents, said Mark Bünger, research director for Lux Research, based in New York City. But the high rate of failure of biotech companies can make some venture capitalists wary of investing, he said.
“You face long odds, and everyone knows that going in,” said Bünger, whose firm provides research about science- based companies and industries.
Experts say the agents are starting to make it possible to detect a “pre-disease” state in patients. This more easily and cheaply allows monitoring of how patients respond to certain therapies. The technology also extends to therapeutic uses, theoretically allowing doctors to attack cancer cells from the inside out.
“If you are not attacking cancer at the cellular level, there are going to be a lot of rough side effects,” said Terry Colip, who said molecular drugs could eliminate many of the harsh side effects associated with chemotherapy.
While some of the advances remain on the horizon, doctors for years have used imaging techniques to help detect all sorts of diseases. X-ray technology is a classic example.
The newer imaging agents being developed expand so-called nuclear imaging, which works by injecting radioactive substances into patients and using a camera to measure the radiation emitted.
These agents, which use sophisticated chemistry, allow doctors to better identify abnormalities at the cellular level, said Wagner. That will lead to earlier and more targeted treatments for everything from cardiovascular disease and cancer to mental illness, he said.
Alzheimer’s disease, for example, is typically diagnosed when a person begins showing memory loss or dementia. With imaging agents, Wagner said doctors could detect excess amyloids, a harbinger of the disease.
Lighting up tumors
What makes CellPoint unique, Terry Colip said, is its so-called EC technology. Developed at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, EC is a sort of molecular glue that can bond with glucose, a type of sugar, and the element technetium.
Compared with healthy cells, cancer cells gobble up a disproportionate amount of the glucose, Colip said. Because technetium can be photographed by equipment such as SPECT cameras, he said, CellPoint’s technology “lights up” areas in a patient where a cancerous tumor has formed.
Terry Colip said CellPoint’s first product focuses on allowing doctors to detect cancer by using SPECT, or single photon emission computed tomography, instead of PET, or positron emission tomography.
He said SPECT cameras are in about 98 percent of U.S. hospitals. PET cameras, which can be more than twice as expensive as SPECT cameras, are in about 4 percent of hospitals.
Terry Colip said the company’s treatments for cancer will begin early-stage trials this spring, meaning they won’t be available in the market until 2009 at the earliest.
“It’s a sensational concept – if it works,” said Dr. Denny Chalus, a Denver-based radiologist and a CellPoint investor.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
