AUSTIN, Texas - Oral care product leader Colgate-Palmolive Company has entered into an alliance with Introgen Therapeutics to market oral health care formulations specifically designed to fight against pre-cancerous conditions in the oral cavity as well as oral cancer.
Towards this end Colgate purchased $20 million of Introgen shares with exclusive rights over the products that are produced by Introgen. Introgen has a wide range of molecular therapeutics that include tumor suppressors such as p53, mda-7, and FUS1. The company is in an advanced stage of developing INGN 234, a mouthwash designed to deliver the p53 tumor suppressor for the prevention of a pre-cancerous condition called Leukoplakia as well as oral cancer. David G. Nance, Chief Executive Officer of Introgen was understandably pleased with the lucrative agreement.We believe that repair of damaged cells and safe elimination of malignant or pre-malignant cells from the mouth could represent important therapies for dentists, oral health professionals and oncology specialists to prevent and treat oral diseases, he said.
Oral cancer is fast emerging as one of the leading cancers n the world thanks to the killer called Tobacco. Smoking and other factors like chronic trauma do play a large part, but tobacco remains the number 1 culprit. Molecular therapies are emerging technologies that have the potential to fight cancers on the molecular level, giving the patient a better chance of survival and sparing the trauma of chemotherapy as well as radiation therapy. This is the first time that an attempt has been made to deliver a therapeutic agent against oral cancer
