CanBas Co. Ltd. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company have announced that they plan to advance the drug, CBP501, into phase-2 trials for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

CBP501 induces the death of cancerous cells by stripping the cell of the ability to progress through the cell life cycle. Phase-1 data suggests that when CBP501 is combined with selected chemotherapeutic drugs it enhances the established treatments’ ability to fight cancer. 

“For CanBas, which was founded based on a vision of creating superior new treatments for cancer, CBP501’s advancement to phase-2 is an outstanding milestone achieved through our collaborative work with Takeda,” said Takumi Kawabe, president and CEO of CanBas. “We now are focused on continuing the development efforts to achieve our goal of marketing authorization.” 

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company’s President, Yasuchika Hasegawa, is also encouraged by the progress being made with the drug and has said that they along with CanBas will do their diligence to move development along and provide potential benefits of the drug to the medical community.