DiaMedica Announces new Data with its Novel Monoclonal Antibody Program

In work conducted at Charles River Laboratories, the mAb potently inhibited GSK3B leading to the killing of prostate, pancreatic, stomach and mixed lineage leukemia cancer cells in in vitro studies. Importantly, only the cancer cell lines that are dependent on GSK3B activity for survival were killed by the mAb, and not the non-GSK3B dependent cell lines tested.

Demonstrating the potent and targeted activity of the mAb. Our leading cancer target was found to be prostate cancer, the most common form of cancer in men. The mAb was able to kill a highly metastatic androgen refractory prostate cancer cell line at an EC50 value within one log of cisplatin, a highly toxic chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

"DiaMedica's approach to blocking GSK3B is unique and highly differentiated from, to our knowledge, all other drugs in development to this target which are small molecule inhibitors. Our antibody causes activation of a critical signaling pathway, which we believe results in a specific and profound downstream inhibition of GSK3B. This may lead to superior activity and safety of our mAb as compared to small molecule GSK3B inhibitors", commented Dr. Mark Williams, VP Research of DiaMedica.

"While the primary focus of DiaMedica's mAb program is diabetes, these additional studies support the potentially broad utility of our GSK3B inhibiting antibody in several indications, including cancer. DiaMedica anticipates reporting data on diabetes and other diseases in the coming months", stated Rick Pauls, Chairman and CEO of DiaMedica.

"We expect that results from these studies will provide opportunities to partner our exceptional mAb program for numerous diseases while still maintaining our company focus on diabetes.