For Pharmacyte Biotech, It's Not Even a Fair Fight (in a good way for PMCB)
Pharmacyte Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:PMCB) has the biotech industry's equivalent of Superman working in its corner.
How does the old saying from the world of business go? It's not what you know, buy who you know? If it's true (and it is), then Pharmacyte Biotech Inc. (OTCMKTS:PMCB) should be proud - and PMCB investors should be excited - about this week's news regarding the company's team member that's largely leading the company's development of a novel pancreatic cancer therapy.
For those investors that know Pharmacyte Biotech well, the name Manuel Hidalgo will certainly ring a bell. He's the gentlemen who was added to the company's Scientific Advisory Board in July, bringing with him a relevant curriculum vitae that's not only a bit of a show-stopper, but a dossier that doesn't even seem quite fair to the companies that will have to compete with Pharmacyte Biotech pancreatic cancer treatment.
Dr. Hidalgo is a co-founder and Chairman of the international Pancreatic Cancer Research Team (PCRT) along with co-founder Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, and is (or was, anyway - more on this in a moment) the Chief Development Officer of Translational Drug Development. The PCRT is a group of preeminent researchers dedicated to organizing and accelerating the clinical development of new agents for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Hidalgo has participated in the clinical development of more than 30 novel anticancer agents, including studies for the current gold standard for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, the combination chemotherapy of gemcitabine and Abraxane(r). Dr. Hidalgo also led the early clinical trials of temsirolimus (Torisel(tm)), approved for use against advanced kidney cancer, and erlotinib (Tarceva(r)), approved for use against advanced non-small cell lung cancer as well against advanced pancreatic cancer when used in combination with gemcitabine.
That work history is significant.... especially the part about "has participated in the clinical development of more than 30 novel anticancer agents, including studies for the current gold standard for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, the combination chemotherapy of gemcitabine and Abraxane." It matters, because those are the therapies PMCB will find on the playing field as it initiates its newly-redesigned Phase 2b study of Cell-in-a-Box delivery of ifosfamide. ... a redesign that was largely encouraged by Hidalgo after looking closely at the phase 1 results. The new direction will employ the company's Cell-in-a-Box technology as a means to treat a mostly unmet need within the realm of pancreatic cancer patients.
That's because Dr. Hidalgo is the kind of authority that, when he speaks, people listen.
Fast forward to today. Per this week's announcement, Manuel Hidalgo has been named as the Clinical Director of the Leon V. & Marilyn L. Rosenberg Clinical Cancer Center, part of the Cancer Center at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. Dr. Hidalgo has also been appointed Chief of the hospital's Division of Hematology-Oncology. In his role at the prestigious medical center, Dr. Hidalgo will oversee all of BIDMC's clinical cancer programs. He's still on the Pharmacyte Biotech Scientific Advisory Board, though, and will still be offering his valuable expertise to that end.
It's about as much credibility as any one person or any one company should be allowed to have, and speaks volumes about the caliber and potential of the PMCB pancreatic cancer R&D.
