University Of Florida And Procter & Gamble Team Up Against Skin Cancer

February 11, 2002

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida and Procter & Gamble today announced they have joined forces to advance research on Photoprotective Iron Chelator Technology, which was developed by P&G and shows promise for preventing or reducing the harmful effects of the sun, particularly skin cancer.

Preliminary research has shown that, in combination with the appropriate sunscreen, Photoprotective Iron Chelator Technology, or PICT, may have the potential to decrease the number of individuals who develop skin cancer by greatly delaying or preventing tumor onset. It may also reduce the number of tumors in those who do develop skin cancer. The safety and efficacy of PICT must be demonstrated in clinical trials, and the product will ultimately require review and approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

“When ultraviolet light penetrates the skin it forms oxygen radicals which, in the presence of iron, can cause skin wrinkling, sunburn and cancer,” said Don Bissett, a P&G skin care research fellow, whose more than six years of research resulted in PICT. “The P&G iron chelator binds to iron so that it can no longer cause this reaction.”

P&G and the University of Florida Research Foundation have formed a new company called ChelaDerm to continue the development of the technology and seek FDA approval. P&G will contribute a royalty-free, exclusive license of the PICT patents to the new company, while the research foundation will underwrite independent clinical trials and provide ChelaDerm with access to UF personnel and resources through a management services contract. The research foundation is a private, not-for-profit support organization that facilitates the transfer of university technology from the laboratory to the marketplace.

PICT arose from P&G’s substantial commitment to skin-care research. Because P&G is not able to devote resources to commercialize all of its more than 27,000 patents, the company occasionally seeks partners to advance technologies that are not a strategic fit with its current product development activities. P&G markets 250 brands to five billion consumers in 130 countries and invests nearly $2 billion a year research and development.

Dr. Raymond Bergeron, a graduate research professor of medicinal chemistry and eminent scholar in drug development in the UF College of Pharmacy, is one of the world’s leading experts on iron chelators. Bergeron has spent more than two decades studying iron chelators and is the author of numerous publications on the subject. His expertise in drug discovery and development led to the company’s decision to pursue a partnership with UF.

“2-furildioxime, or FDO, the active ingredient in PICT, in combination with a sunscreening agent, has the potential to offer both improved prevention of sunburn and a unique means of delaying or preventing the development of skin cancer,” Bergeron said, adding that more than a million Americans develop skins cancer annually.

“Consumers have become increasingly aware of the dangers of unprotected exposure to ultraviolet radiation,” said Tom Minnick, P&G’s director of external business development and president of ChelaDerm. “We’re excited to work with the UF Research Foundation in an effort to develop a new sun care product to address both the short-term effects of sun exposure, such as sunburn, as well as the long-term effects, including skin cancer risk and premature aging of the skin.”

Initial clinical trials will confirm the safety of FDO and determine what combinations of FDO and sunscreens are most effective in preventing skin damage. The trials initially will focus on individuals with the autoimmune disease lupus, who are extremely sensitive to the sun.

“ChelaDerm offers an unprecedented opportunity for the University of Florida and P&G to pool their extensive intellectual and scientific resources in an effort to alleviate the negative impact of ultraviolet sun exposure,” said Win Phillips, UF’s vice president for research. “Facilitating the transfer of this kind of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace in a timely manner is exactly what the UF Research Foundation was established to do.”