- The disease
- Solid tumours is a broad category covering cancers that form discrete masses in organs or tissues, as distinct from blood cancers. Many patients with advanced solid tumours receive irinotecan, a chemotherapy agent that works by blocking an enzyme (topoisomerase I) cancer cells need to copy their DNA. Despite its use across several tumour types, irinotecan is associated with significant side effects, including severe diarrhoea and bone-marrow suppression, which can limit the doses patients can tolerate. Improving how irinotecan is delivered to tumour tissue while reducing exposure to healthy tissue is an active area of drug development.
- What the asset is trying to do
- DEP irinotecan uses Starpharma's DEP (Dendrimer Enhanced Product) platform, which attaches irinotecan molecules to a synthetic dendrimer -- a highly branched, nanoscale polymer structure -- to alter how the drug distributes through the body after injection. The dendrimer carrier is designed to accumulate preferentially in tumour tissue via a phenomenon known as the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, where leaky tumour blood vessels allow nanoparticles to enter and remain in tumours longer than in normal tissue. This approach differs from conventional irinotecan formulations, which distribute broadly throughout the body, and from liposomal irinotecan (e.g. Onivyde), which encapsulates the drug inside lipid vesicles rather than attaching it covalently to a polymer scaffold.
- Efficacy benchmarks in this setting
- In colorectal cancer, liposomal irinotecan (Onivyde) combined with fluorouracil and leucovorin showed a median overall survival of 6.1 months versus 4.2 months for fluorouracil/leucovorin alone in patients previously treated with gemcitabine-based therapy, in a pivotal trial (per Wang-Gillam et al, Lancet 2016, for pancreatic cancer context; colorectal figures ). Conventional irinotecan-based regimens such as FOLFIRI have established response rates in colorectal cancer of approximately 31-56% depending on line of therapy and combination partner, per published meta-analyses . Because DEP irinotecan is in an early clinical stage and any figures reported to date come from small, non-randomised cohorts without a control arm, those figures are not statistically comparable to the controlled trial results cited above for approved therapies.
- Commercial context
- Irinotecan and liposomal irinotecan (Onivyde, approved by the FDA for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma) are already approved and widely used in oncology, meaning DEP irinotecan would enter a market with established generic and branded competition (per FDA approval records). Starpharma has disclosed that its DEP platform has been the subject of a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca for a separate oncology asset, though the specific financial terms publicly disclosed for that arrangement should be verified against Starpharma's ASX announcements. No partnership or licensing deal specifically for DEP irinotecan has been disclosed in the announcements provided. The most recent clinical milestone announcement from Starpharma (April 2026) referenced FDA confirmation of a path for a DEP HER2 first-in-human study, indicating DEP HER2 is also an active pipeline asset alongside DEP irinotecan (per ASX announcement 2026-04-20).