Concordia Healthcare Corp. works to expand treatment options for patients with rare cancers

CheckOrphan Reports:

Concordia Healthcare Corp. (“Concordia” or the “Company”) (TSX: CXR) (OTCQX: CHEHF), a diverse healthcare company focused on legacy pharmaceutical products, orphan drugs, and medical devices for the diabetic population, provided a clinical update on its orphan drug development program with Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) with PHOTOFRIN® (porfimer sodium), a drug-device combination therapy.

Due to its ability to target cancer cells, PDT with PHOTOFRIN is being studied in a range of hard-to-treat, hard-to-reach cancers including adult and pediatric brain cancer, mesothelioma and cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer).

“As a drug-device combination treatment, photodynamic therapy with PHOTOFRIN has broad therapeutic applicability,” said Mark Thompson, CEO of Concordia. “Concordia has the commitment to fully realize the potential of this research program in the orphan disease space, potentially helping patients dealing with an unmet medical need.”

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) are currently initiating a Phase 2 study of PDT with PHOTOFRIN in adults with recurrent high-grade gliomas, a diverse group of tumors of the brain and spinal cord that grow quickly and have the ability to spread through the brain aggressively making them very difficult to treat.