Venn Brown sat down with Daniel Tillett, CEO of Racura Oncology, to discuss the three potential applications for RC220, their potential market size, the status of its clinical trials, funding, and what the market doesn’t understand.

Old drug, new delivery:

RC220 reformulates bisantrene, an effective cancer drug developed in the 1980s but constrained by poor solubility and crystallisation in the blood. Racura’s formulation is designed to enable safer, more practical administration while preserving the drug’s underlying properties. Unlike many early-stage oncology assets, bisantrene also brings historical human efficacy data and subsequent clinical validation in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Three paths from one compound:

Racura is developing RC220 across acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), EGFR-mutant² lung cancer and cardioprotection during chemotherapy. Each program carries a different balance of risk, timing and commercial potential, giving the company several routes to value creation from one core asset. Together, the targeted cancers represent an addressable population of approximately six to seven million people diagnosed annually in the OECD.

Cardioprotection during chemo is a massive opportunity:

Cardioprotection is potentially RC220’s largest application, targeting heart damage associated with widely used anthracycline chemotherapy while also seeking to improve cancer treatment. The trial is progressing through dose escalation across Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea. The opportunity could extend across multiple solid tumours, although management acknowledges it has the least human data & will take the longest to establish.

Funded through the trials:

Racura reported $34 million in cash at the end of June after raising more than $24 million through exercised piggyback options. Management says this leaves all three clinical programs fully funded to completion. Historical annual cash burn has been $10–12 million, of which $8-10 million has been eligible for the Federal Government’s R&D tax rebate.

A different company today:

Racura’s current strategy bears little resemblance to the business many longer-standing investors may remember. Racura has reformulated the drug, identified its MYC-related mechanism and built a new clinical and patent strategy around RC220 with funding through to trial completion.

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Download the report for the full interview

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² _{EGFR = Epidermal growth factor receptor}