Dr Alan Olivero discusses what makes a good brain cancer drug

Posted in MEDIA RELEASE

"I think a lot of neuro-oncologists are still looking at their patients and trying to give them hope.  But still, there isn't a really compelling drug out there that is going to change their life just yet.  Now the hope is, we're all going to work really hard to find lots of drugs for those patients.  But right now, it's still very limited."

 

Kazia was honoured recently to have Dr Alan Olivero, formerly of Genentech, visit Australia. Alan led the team responsible for the design and initial development of Kazia’s lead therapeutic, GDC-0084.

During his visit, we captured a short video with Alan talking about glioblastoma, the brain cancer which GDC-0084 was developed to combat. In this interview, Alan discusses:

  • What glioblastoma is and the outlook for patients with the currently available treatment regime
  • How Dr Olivero was motivated to find a better way of treating the disease, following his brother’s own diagnosis
  • The key elements to making a successful brain cancer drug and how GDC-0084 works through the PI3K pathway
  • The enthusiasm from clinicians to work with GDC-0084, given it has been specifically designed to brain cancer

 

Watch the compelling interview with Dr Olivero below.