PharmaShots Interview: Q BioMed's Denis Corin Shares Insights on the Agreement to Serve US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs

In an interview with PharmaShots, Denis Corin, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Q BioMed share his views on the supply agreement for Strontium89 with the US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Shots:

BioMed has signed a 5-year agreement to commercially serve the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD)
The company will be supplying its bone cancer pain drug, Strontium89 to over 9M beneficiaries and other patients in the federal system
Q BioMed is also working on activities that include a VA sales force, formulary and market access, medical education, and marketing

Tuba: What does the 5year contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs mean to Q BioMed?

Denis: We can be confident in making a significant investment in-field resources and infrastructure to best serve the needs of veterans and federal employees.

Tuba: Discuss the mechanism of Strontium89.

Denis: Strontium89 can provide effective, lasting palliation for painful bone metastases regardless of primary tumor site breast, prostate, lung, or anywhere else in the body. Strontium89 is a pure beta emitter that selectively targets and accumulates in metastatic bone lesions with minimal irradiation of surrounding normal tissue.

Tuba: Highlight the clinical data supporting the use of Strontium89 in Metastatic Cancer Bone Pain.

Denis: Multiple clinical studies have demonstrated significant palliative benefit in the management of painful bone metastases. In its pivotal multi-center placebo-controlled trial, a greater percentage of Strontium89-treated patients experienced pain relief without an increase in analgesic or radiotherapy retreatment vs. placebo. As many as 79% of clinical study participants had reduced bone pain with Strontium89, a greater percentage of Strontium89-treated patients experienced zero pain, and a significantly greater proportion of patients had no need for rescue analgesics.

Tuba: What are other therapies in Q BioMed's portfolio? What are the indications those therapies are targeted for?

Denis: We plan to file INDs in mid-2021 for MAN-19 for Acute Respiratory Diseases Syndrome (caused by COVID-19) and later for each of our Uttroside-B and MAN-01 assets for the treatment of liver cancer and glaucoma, respectively. We also intend to advance our QBM-001 asset to address a non-verbal learning disorder in autistic children.

Tuba: Do you have any patient access program for the global access of Strontium89?

Denis: We have a Named Patient Program in place to ensure clinicians can order Strontium89 for their patients with painful bone metastases in any market around the world.

Tuba: Are you planning for this collaboration for your other therapies as well? Are you also looking for a partnership in the private sector for this specific molecule?

Denis: We will look to ensure VA/DoD can provide access to our therapies through an FSS agreement whenever it is appropriate.

Tuba: What are the different forms of cancer indications that are more prone to Veterans?

Denis: Prostate, breast, and lung cancer all see higher levels of incidence in the veteran population.

Image Source: Healthline

About Denis Corin:

Mr. Denis D. Corin is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Mr. Corin is an experienced public company executive and management consultant. He has worked almost exclusively in the biomedical field for over 13 years from large pharma and diagnostic companies to small innovative biotech.