Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment with Remotely-Controlled Magnetodrones^™ Technology: Starpax Biopharma

“We leverage a cancer technology that addresses a treatment problem, unmet by chemotherapy and immunotherapy for a century.”

Imagine a world where each cancer cell is killed by remotely-controlled living warriors without circulating through the bloodstream. This isn’t science fiction; this is the revolutionary work of Starpax Biopharma.

Founded in 2017, Starpax distinguishes itself as a pioneering biopharmaceutical company, transcending conventional boundaries. Their game-changing therapy revolves around Magnetodrones^™, microscopic living transporters sensitive to magnetic fields. These minute entities swim in the interstitial space of tumor tissues to deliver medication that is attached to their surface, directly to cancer cells, bypassing the bloodstream and minimizing side effects, marking a paradigm shift in cancer care. Preclinical trials have shown exceptional results: a 100% remission rate with no observed side effects.

Michael Gareau, CEO of Starpax Biopharma, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review about how his company is redefining possibilities and revolutionizing the future of cancer treatment.

Interview Highlights

Please tell us about the circumstances or events that led to the founding of Starpax Biopharma.

Before Starpax, I was the former founding president and managing director of a Private Equity firm. I had to meet with six sourcers three days a week, each coming from different countries, presenting their best deals for Ipax Capital’s potential acquisition. Consider that—six deals per day, 18 per week, 48 weeks per year—making it around 864 possible deals per year. I do not exaggerate when I say I have analyzed over 20,000 deals in my career.

In 2016, when I came across two patents about Virtual Monopole Magnetic Fields, I was flabbergasted. You encounter something extraordinary like that once in a lifetime. Subsequently, I decided to acquire these two patents for myself to develop a never-before-seen technology to treat cancer. This technology is now protected with 57 patents and pending applications. The two patents were initially owned by a top-tier Canadian university, and the condition to acquire exclusive rights was to initiate the project in Canada.

To fulfill this condition, I had to leave the successful PE firm that I founded, sell my residence in Europe and move my family to Canada, specifically to Quebec, with its snowy winter reaching temperatures of minus 30°F. What motivated me to take the plunge was the memory of my father, who died from cancer on the same day as my university graduation. Additionally, I lost two brothers to cancer a couple of years ago, my third brother had his prostate removed, and my sister has battled three types of cancer and is still undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Having seen my family members experience the suffering caused by cancer and the often severe side effects of treatments that wreak havoc on healthy organs, sometimes leading to other cancers, is a deeply personal motivation. Prolonged periods of daily vomiting or hair loss can significantly impact self-esteem and overall physical and emotional well-being. The potential impact of this game-changing technology is so massive that I felt compelled to embark on this project to make it available to the greatest number of patients as quickly as possible.

Q. What primary challenge has Starpax Biopharma encountered in addressing cancer treatment, and what strategies have been employed to overcome this challenge?

The Challenge

Curing cancer has never been an easy task. For over a century, big pharma and millions of scientists worldwide have endeavored to find a solution to the challenges of curing cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy emerged around the beginning of the 20th century, with not much significant progress until the 90s. In the last two decades, several new technologies have produced incremental progress, but no real game-changer. While radiotherapy paved the way for new proton and ion therapies and drugs evolved into antibodies, nanocarriers, precision-target drugs, etc., the ultimate breakthrough remains elusive. Tumors are heterogeneous, cancer cells mutate, and companies continue to develop drugs to overcome these challenges. However, a significant hurdle remains unaddressed by these new products – the ability to reach every cancer cell in the tumor.

When tumors grow, cancer cells consume all the oxygen around them, creating hypoxic zones with low oxygen levels. Studies have shown that hypoxia decreases senescence, leading to chaotic, malfunctioning, and collapsed blood and lymphatic vessels. When blood vessels are impaired, systemic injection of drugs in the blood system barely reach the cancer cells inside the tumor because the roads inside the tumor (blood vessels) used to spread the drugs throughout the tumor volume are seriously damaged. The interstitial pressure in the tumor is higher than the pressure in blood capillaries inside the tumor, restricting drugs from penetrating the tumor through the vessels. In summary, multiple studies around the globe have demonstrated that 90% of the volume of a tumor receives little or no drug at all.

This is where the Starpax technology comes into play – reaching each cancer cell throughout the entire volume of the tumor and effectively eliminating them. Another major resistance problem is killing cancer stem cells in hypoxic zones. Since oxygen and blood vessels are practically absent in hypoxic zones, multiple studies have demonstrated that radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy are inefficient in these areas. Radiation therapy requires oxygen to be effective, chemotherapy drugs and immune cells need blood vessels to be distributed in hypoxic zones and throughout the whole tumor volume. Since cancer cells do not divide in hypoxic zones, it takes a very specific drug to address this challenge.

How We Overcome The Challenge

To overcome these challenges, Starpax has developed a technology comprising two elements – the Magnetodrones^™ and the PolarTrak^™ – and one cannot work without the other. Since drugs or immune cells cannot swim in a tumor, and cannot spread without blood vessels, Starpax invented the Magnetodrones to travel in the tumor and a Polartrak to control their trajectory:

Magnetodrones^™ consist of a unique non-patogenic proprietary living bacterium (Bn1-S) that is sensitive to specific magnetic fields generated by the Starpax Polartrak and transports an already FDA-approved anticancer drug attached to its surface. They are self-propelled and can swim within the interstitial spaces of the tumor tissues without the need to circulate in blood vessels. They, therefore, don’t spread the drug throughout the whole patient’s body, which can create unwanted side effects. Magnetodrones are aerotactic, meaning they search for low levels of oxygen. When passing through hypoxic zones, where stem cells that drive metastasis are located, they penetrate and accumulate within them. This is because the low level of oxygen in hypoxic zones is the same as their culture medium, allowing them to release their drug to non-dividing stem cells. They are injected directly into the tumor, do not reproduce in the human body, and die within 60 minutes.

The PolarTrak^™ is a patented medical device invented by Starpax in which the patient is installed. It produces virtual monopole magnetic field vectors that control the trajectory of the Magnetodrones^™ in three dimensions with milimetric precision. After the injection of the Magnetodrones, the Polartrak creates a magnetic sphere around the tumor to trap the Magnetodrones inside it, preventing them from escaping into the rest of the patient’s body, damaging organs, and creating unwanted side effects. The Polartrak forces the Magnetpdrones to spread throughout the entire volume of the tumor, reaching all cancer cells, including those in hypoxic zones, while releasing the drug on their path.

The PolarTrak^™ is controlled by artificial intelligence that defines, from MRI imaging data, the shape and volume of the tumor to force the Magnetodrones™ to spread throughout the volume. Magnetic fields produced by the PolarTrak^™ are safe for humans, as they are 2,000 times less powerful than those of MRI used in hospitals.

Consequently, Starpax technology offers three therapeutic benefits in a single treatment:

1. Local chemotherapy: The Magnetodrones are trapped in the tumor and spread throughout its whole volume.
2. Hypoxia therapy: The Magnetodrones are aerotactic, penetrating and accumulating in hypoxic zones attacking stem cells.
3. Immunotherapy: Magnetodrones are living micro-organisms, and preclinical studies have shown that they trigger the immune system. As a result, immune cells could potentially attack floating cancer cells and metastasis elsewhere in the patient’s body, even though no drug circulates outside the tumor.

Q. How advanced is Starpax’s tech infrastructure?

Since the founding of Starpax in 2018, we have constructed three laboratories and a Magnetodrones GMP Class manufacturing plant where we have invented important production equipment that were not existing before. The Starpax Polartrak is already installed at the hospital, ready for clinical trials on humans in 2024.

Q. What makes Starpax Biopharma an innovative company amongst all the competitors present in the industry? 

Starpax is not an ordinary pharma or biotech; it’s a biopharmatech leveraging four disciplines: 1) Microbiology, 2) Biochemistry, 3) Electromagnetism Engineering, and 4) Artificial Intelligence. This integration advances product novelties, tackling a century-old challenge in cancer treatment: reaching and killing cells across the entire tumor volume, including hypoxic zones with stem cells. Studies show traditional treatments like modern chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy fall short in these critical areas.

Q. Tell us about the Starpax team. What value do they bring to the company?

Starpax’s team stands out from typical startups. Our board includes three retired presidents from major pharmas—Johnson & Johnson France, Pfizer Canada, and Eli Lilly Canada—alongside the Managing Director and COO of JP Morgan EMEA Investment Bank who just retired recently. I am a serial entrepreneur with 41 years of experience, having founded and led Ipax Capital LLP, a global top-five private equity firm. My partners are, Thierry Page, COO, a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years, and the CFO, Jean François Pruneau, with 27 years, who earned recognition as the ‘Best CFO of a large corporation in Canada.’ Dr. Martel, VP and Chief of Technology, is the inventor of Virtual Monopole Magnetic Fields, awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Each department’s directors, with 15 to 20 years of experience, hold Ph.D. degrees.

Q. What new endeavors is Starpax currently undertaking? What are the company’s upcoming plans?

At Starpax, we have three laboratories. One of them is for the research and development of future products, and the list is quite extensive. Starpax can utilize already approved drugs with expired patents that have been used in patients for decades. We can put 50 times more of these drugs in the tumor than their systemic traditional version while avoiding toxic side effects. The toxicity of these drugs is well known and documented at the FDA and Health Canada, and we don’t intend to exceed dose limits. In fact, we only inject 20% of the actual standard systemic chemotherapy dose, and the results are exponential. Because we use drugs (already FDA approved anticancer molecules) that have been use in humans for years, we estimate the risk of failure in clinical trials is extremely low, leveraging our chance of success much higher than new drug developments. This gives Starpax an enormous market potential to address 90% of cancer, representing 89% of deaths. This is an annual addressable global market of $901 billion within the next five years.

Also, the Starpax technology can address a totally new market, probably even bigger than our cancer division. I talked previously about the hypoxic areas, but the lack of oxygen in the tissues does not only happen in tumors. There are a lot of NON-CANCER DISEASES caused by non-cancerous hypoxic areas where no treatment solutions exist. Easy to understand, drugs need blood vessels to be distributed in human tissues, and they are absent in non-cancerous hypoxic zones. Then it is a natural extension of the Starpax technology to continue research for applications for these numerous non-cancer diseases. At this moment, we are looking at Ischemic heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, Acute Ischemic Stroke in the brain, and Diabetic Retinopathy of the eyes for which drugs are existing but cannot spread with efficacy in those tissues.

Entering clinical trials in 2024 with six cancer types (Pancreas, Prostate, Breast, Head & Neck, Collorectal and  Vulva) and after the anticipated Phase II commercial approval expected in 18 months for a first cancer, we will launch our unique business model for swift commercial deployment. Having analyzed various solutions with top accounting and consultant firms in the US, Starpax aims to establish Starpax Cancer Centers (SCC) in the USA. Each SCC building includes 10 Polartrak ambulatory rooms, two MRI, one CT Scan, one PET scan, and dedicated medical and administration staff. The US needs 580 SCCs (1200 including Europe). Starpax is collaborating with a multinational corporation for turnkey SCC construction and delivery of the SCC, ensuring rapid deployment in the US and later in Europe.

Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up?   

Starpax is entering clinical trials in 2024, treating six cancer indications: Pancreas, Prostate, Head & Neck, Breast recurrence, Colorectal, and Vulva, targeting commercial approval in Phase II for unmet medical needs on an FDA fast track program.

Starpax is fundraising to cover its clinical trials on humans beginning in 2024. For more information, visit: https://investinstarpax.com/

“As we embark on clinical trials, Starpax is not just addressing cancer; it’s rewriting the rules. Our technology, driven by compassion and innovation, aims to redefine the future of healthcare, offering hope and healing to those who need it most.”