Scientists at the University of Vermont have agreed a deal with Cell Therapeutics Europe (CTE) to begin making a new platinum-based cancer treatment into a commercially viable global operation.

The university has come to an exclusive arrangement with the company to license anticancer drug treatment in the form of bisplatinum compounds.

CTE will now roll out the treatment worldwide, with the firm confident of speedy success as Silvano Spinelli, executive vice president of development at CTE, explained.

"Bisplatinum compounds are part of an important class of anticancer agents known as platinates, currently used as standard treatment for lung, ovarian and colorectal cancer, among others.

"Our development group is working diligently to advance an investigational drug candidate in 2005, so we can begin testing the bisplatinum compounds in humans by 2006," he commented.

While standard platinum agents contain a single platinum molecule, bisplatinum compounds contain two platinum molecules which are reputed to help stem tumour resistance to platinum.

The new platinum-based treatment is also said to have negotiated some of the side effects traditionally associated with the anticancer compounds.