Anticancer Drug Development in India: Challenges and Perspectives

Invictus Oncology, a leader in Supramolecular Therapeutics in Oncology, is
a privately held company dedicated towards providing cancer patients a
better quality of life by developing new generation cancer drugs with
better efficacy and less toxicity. A breakthrough discovery involving the
use of supramolecular-based strategies to destroy cancer cells led to the
conception of Invictus Oncology. The company was founded in 2011 and is
based in New Delhi. With an outstanding team of internationally acclaimed
scientists and ground-breaking science, Invictus Oncology is poised to
bring the first novel anti-cancer drugs that have been developed in India
for global impact.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15-20% of all breast
cancers and is associated with a poor prognosis, with a median survival of
13 months. There are limited treatment options for this disease. Recent
studies have indicated clinical benefits of platinum agents in TNBC.

Scientists at Invictus Oncology designed IO-125 for superior anti-tumor
activity by discovering a novel highly active platinum agent and then
utilized their supramolecular platform to enhance its biodistribution to
tumors in comparison to normal tissues. The results show that IO-125 has
remarkable and sustained activity in mouse models of TNBC. Based on these
observations, IO-125 has entered late stages of pre-clincal development.

About Dr Monideepa Roy:
Dr Monideepa Roy has established and currently drives the R&D laboratory
at Invictus. Following her Ph.D. in JNU, Delhi, she trained in the
Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical
School and received a fellowship from the US Department of Defense. Dr.
Roy has extensive research experience in developing high-throughput
screening methods to characterize the role of tumor suppressors and
oncogenes driving growth of cancer cells. Her innovative work was honored
with the first Thomas Gill Prize for Research Excellence. At Harvard
University, Dr. Roy designed and taught a comprehensive graduate course in
Cancer Biology. She also received a Career Development Award from Leukemia
Lymphoma Society. Her current research is geared toward the identification
of molecular markers in cancer and developing novel therapeutic approaches
for fighting cancer. At Invictus, she is leading a team of
internationally-acclaimed scientists to develop a pipeline of novel
supramolecular anticancer compounds that has led to 11 patent applications
internationally.