Canadian national life sciences venture CDRD said on Monday that it has committed USD1.2m in investment in Sitka Biopharma, a preclinical biotechnology company.

The investment will enable Sitka to accelerate critical development activities for clinical trials of STK-01 for the treatment of bladder cancer. While STK-01 is being developed for the treatment of bladder cancer, the follow-on indications of the current core formulation include intraperitoneal delivery for ovarian cancer and other indications where localised drug delivery would be advantageous but currently ineffective due to those penetration challenges.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and has the highest per patient lifetime cost of all cancers. The challenge in bladder cancer is the drugs are not well-absorbed and only stay in the bladder for as long as the patient does not void their bladder, a critical issue addressed by the Sitka technology.

Additionally, Sitka's funding includes investments by Quark Venture and early-stage grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Genome British Columbia and the National Research Council of Canada's IRAP Programme.