If you live in Australia, New Zealand, or Texas, your dog might be eligible to join a clinical trial studying the drug monepantel.

Monepantel was originally developed as a sheep dewormer, but a scientist in Australia discovered that it killed cancer cell lines in the lab. Now, monepantel is being studied as a treatment for B-cell lymphoma in dogs, cancer in humans, and motor neuron disease in humans.

Dr. Kim Agnew, the principal investigator on the dog lymphoma study, explains how this drug works and what results they are seeing, as well as the path to full approval. While monepantel is not going to take the place of chemotherapy, it does show promise to help slow progression of lymphoma and preserve the dogs’ quality of life for up to seven months.

Listen in to learn more, and see if this clinical trial might be a good fit for your dog!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Show:

PharmAust Dog Lymphoma Clinical Trial: https://www.pharmaust.com/petdogtrial/

Related Links:

What to Know About Lymphoma podcast episode

Dog Cancer Research: About Clinical Trials for Dog Cancer article

Choosing the Right Clinical Trial for Your Dog podcast episode

Chapters:

0:00 Start

1:46 Repurposing Drugs

5:04 How It Works

8:54 Not a Replacement for Chemo

11:41 Lymphoma Clinical Trials

17:29 Stable Disease

21:52 Monepantel with Pred

24:40 Ivermectin and Other Repurposed Drugs

28:05 Side Effects

33:40 Approval Process and Study Enrollment

About Today’s Guest, Dr. Kim Agnew:

Rural upbringing in New Zealand lead to a passion for livestock health and productivity which progressed to Biochemistry followed by Veterinary Science qualifications at Massey University. Dr. Agnew has significant veterinary practical experience with 10 years in a large practice in South Auckland followed by a 20 year career at Elanco Animal Health which allowed for exposure to a wide range of life science aspects.

Dr. Agnew has played a role in the development of novel veterinary products with a focus on topical parasiticides for sheep and cattle and oral and water delivered ionophore products for cattle.

Expansion of his role to Australia lead to an area of real passion - team building. Leading the combined research and regulatory teams since 2007, followed by leadership of a global R&D hub based in Sydney allowed him to build teams that team members wanted to stay in.

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