New Colorectal Cancer Drug Enters Human Trials
Patients with advanced colorectal cancer may be able to join early testing of RP-001 in Texas and the United Kingdom.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Cancer
Live Poll
Do you trust university-developed cancer drugs to be tested safely before reaching patients?
Recurv Pharma has launched a human clinical trial of RP-001, an experimental drug for advanced colorectal cancer, with the trial based in Texas and the United Kingdom. The drug is a conjugate of a second-generation Stony Brook-developed taxane delivered in a nanoemulsion, and the program was recently backed by a $24M investment from TVM Capital Life Sciences.
Why it matters
Colorectal cancer patients often face multidrug resistance and adverse side effects that reduce how well existing treatments work, which is the problem this new formulation is designed to address. The trial moves an early-stage candidate into human testing, a step that will determine whether the approach is safe and worth further study.
This is a Phase 1 human trial, which is designed primarily to assess safety and determine dosing rather than to measure whether the drug improves survival. Results from earlier preclinical work and the trial's future Phase 2 phase in pancreatic and colorectal cancer are not yet available in the reporting.
The players
Recurv Pharma
A drug developer advancing RP-001, a taxane-based nanoemulsion candidate for advanced cancers including colorectal and pancreatic tumors.
TargaGenix, Inc.
A Stony Brook University spinout that licensed the drug conjugate in 2016 and co-developed its nanoemulsion formulation.
Stony Brook University
A New York public research university whose chemistry department developed the second-generation taxane conjugate behind RP-001.
The details
RP-001 is a polyunsaturated fatty acid conjugate of a taxane, a class of chemotherapy drugs, formulated as a nanoemulsion. The nanoemulsion format is intended to concentrate the drug in tumors through the Enhanced Permeability and Retention effect, which relies on the leaky blood vessels typical of tumor tissue and the size of nanoscale particles. The drug was originally developed at Stony Brook University by Dr. Iwao Ojima, then licensed to TargaGenix and sub-licensed to Recurv Pharma.
Timeline
In 2016, the SUNY Research Foundation licensed the conjugate to TargaGenix.
Earlier in 2026, FDA approved Recurv Pharma's Investigational New Drug application for RP-001.
The current clinical trial, based in Texas and the United Kingdom, has now been launched.
Health Landscape
The Stony Brook taxane conjugate program is one of several efforts to reduce chemotherapy resistance and side effects through drug-delivery design rather than new molecular targets. Moving a nanoemulsion taxane into human trials places this approach alongside the broader pipeline of nanoparticle chemotherapies now being tested for colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
If you or someone close to you has colorectal cancer, this trial is at an early stage and is not yet a treatment option, so it is worth asking an oncologist whether any clinical trials are appropriate for your situation. The news is most relevant to people already in treatment who are interested in what options may come after current therapies stop working.
The takeaway
Early-stage trials like this one are the first step toward learning whether a new cancer drug is safe enough to keep developing, and results will take years to emerge. Ask your oncologist whether a clinical trial is an option if your current treatment is no longer working.
Further reading
For more on how new treatments are tested, see our coverage in Cancer.
Source note: This article includes information reported by LongIsland.
Live Poll
Do you trust university-developed cancer drugs to be tested safely before reaching patients?
