UI College of Pharmacy announces ovarian‑cancer drug IND filing and pharmacy‑led lung‑screening pilot

Dr. Jill Kolesar, dean and professor in the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, told the Board of Regents June 16 that her lab’s candidate drug VT101 is designed to reprogram tumor‑associated macrophages to make ovarian tumors more susceptible to immune attack and that the team completed pre‑IND discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and planned an IND submission on June 18 to enable a phase‑1 dose‑finding trial.

Kolesar described laboratory data showing the compound localizes to tumor tissue and said the IND package was prepared following an expedited grant process that brought multi‑institution collaborators together rapidly. She identified collaborators in immunology, manufacturing and clinical trial leadership and said the trial would be first‑in‑human pending FDA clearance.

Kolesar also outlined a pilot program to expand lung‑cancer screening access through community pharmacies. Funded initially by Eli Lilly (roughly $1 million), the pilot uses a commercially available blood test to pre‑screen patients identified from pharmacy records by age and smoking history and refer positives to low‑dose CT. The study team opened the pilot at a Greenwood pharmacy and screened hundreds the first week; the study will pay for testing during the pilot and seeks to assess feasibility in rural areas where primary‑care access is limited.

Board members asked about eligibility criteria, radon exposure as a risk factor and reimbursement. Kolesar said eligibility is age‑ and smoking‑history based, that radon remains an important risk factor not yet incorporated into screening recommendations, and that the blood test is commercially available but not universally covered by CMS; the study will cover testing costs for participants during the pilot.