Neoprobe Corp. (OTC:NEOP) continues to take steps down the regulatory path that are aimed at restarting development efforts for its RIGScan cancer-detecting technology.
The Dublin, Ohio-based company has been granted a first-quarter meeting with the Food & Drug Administration to discuss its plans to begin clinical testing of RIGScan, according to a statement from Neoprobe.
If the FDA signs off on Neoprobe’s development plans, the company would submit an Investigational New Drug application to the agency, the company said. Once the FDA approves that application, Neoprobe would be free to begin testing RIGScan on humans.
RIGScan works by attaching itself to cancerous cells in the body, which can then be identified by a handheld radiation-detection device. A cancer patient is injected with the drug before surgery, and the radiation scanner directs the surgeon to cancerous tissue in the patient’s body.
The drug, or more precisely, the “targeting agent,” may enable more effective colorectal cancer surgeries, according to Neoprobe.
Neoprobe had essentially left the RIGScan program for dead after 1997, after the FDA denied an application for the drug. However, the company has revived interest in the drug in recent years. Last year, the company raised $3.5 million from an investor to help pay for re-development of the drug, and entered into a development deal with Laureate Pharma to help with RIGScan.
RIGScan is at least three years away from commercialization.
