Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is estimated that globally more than 17.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer and 8.7 million people die of the disease each year.1 The majority of these cancers are of the solid tumour type.2 There are currently a large range of anticancer treatments available for solid tumours. However, there is considerable interest in the development of new treatments mainly driven by the ongoing need to treat late stages of disease.3
QBiotics' leading anticancer pharmaceutical, tigilanol tiglate (EBC-46), is a novel small molecule diterpene ester in development as a local treatment for solid tumours. Tigilanol tiglate was discovered by applying the EcoLogic™ approach to drug discovery from the tropical rainforests of Queensland Australia. The drug is not synthetically tractable and is isolated from the Australian native plant Blushwood. Tigilanol tiglate is a protein kinase C (PKC) activator and when injected into solid tumours causes PKC-dependent haemorrhagic necrosis, rapid tumour cell death and ultimate destruction of solid tumours.3
