Medical cannabis formulation kills prostate cancer in laboratory tests
pharmafile | July 19, 2021 | News story | Sales and Marketing | medical cannabis, prostate cancer
Apollon Formularies have announced its medical cannabis formulations were shown to be effective in killing both hormone-resistant and hormone-sensitive prostate cancer cells in 3D cell cultures in third party independent laboratory testing.
The testing was performed by BIOENSIS, an independent, pre-clinical predictive pharmaceutical testing laboratory. The testing results showed that Apollon Jamaica’s medical cannabis formulations were effective in killing living hormone-sensitive and hormone-resistant prostate cancer cells directly (direct cytotoxicity). The formulations killed nearly 100% of the prostate cancer cells in 3D cell cultures.
The testing occurred as a part of a Joint Testing Agreement between the parties and was authorized in accordance with Apollon Jamaica’s Research & Development licence issued by the Jamaican government’s Cannabis Licensing Authority.
Stephen D Barnhill, CEO of Apollon, said: “Cannabinoids have been seen to exert ‘antitumour’ effects by a number of different means, including killing cancer cells directly as well as inhibiting transformed cell growth and tumour metastasis.
“Apollon Jamaica, using results from its proprietary artificial intelligence-based analysis on strain genetics, has cultivated and processed certain of its proprietary medical cannabis products with cancer treatment expressly in mind. We are extremely excited that our proprietary medical cannabis formulations have been validated via independent laboratory testing to kill both hormone-sensitive and hormone-resistant prostate cancer cells in 3D cell cultures via direct cytotoxicity.
“This is in addition to our Apollon medical cannabis formulations killing HER2+ breast cancer cells and Triple Negative Breast Cancer cells in 3D cell culture as recently announced.”
Prostate cancer is the second most frequent malignancy, after lung cancer, in men worldwide, counting 1,276,106 new cases and causing 358,989 deaths, which equates to 3.8% of all deaths caused by cancer in men, in 2018. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer worldwide correlate with increasing age, with the average age at the time of diagnosis being 66 years.
Dr Herbert Fritsche, Chief Science Officer of Apollon and former Professor and Director of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Texas, said: “These remarkable results demonstrating the ability of the Apollon formulations to directly kill nearly 100% of prostate cancer cells in 3D cell culture provide us independent scientific evidence of the success of these products in pre-clinical testing.
“Pursuant to the Research & Development and the Retail-Therapeutic medical cannabis licences issued to Apollon Jamaica by the Jamaican Cannabis Licensing Authority, we intend to make these formulations immediately available to licensed Jamaican physicians experienced in prescribing Apollon products, allowing them to begin immediately treating patients who have prostate cancer in Jamaica where the companies’ formulations are currently available by physician prescription. This will allow us to supplement these impressive laboratory results with clinical data from the treatment of human patients.”
Kat Jenkins
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