An experimental drug slowed triple-negative breast cancer in mice by flooding tumour cells with toxic fats.

Triple-negative breast cancer lacks three common drug targets, making it one of the hardest-to-treat and most aggressive forms of the disease.

The compound, known as DH20931, appears to push cancer cells past their limits by triggering a surge in ceramides, fat-like molecules that place the cells under intense stress until they self-destruct.

In lab experiments, the drug also made standard chemotherapy more effective. When combined with doxorubicin, researchers were able to reduce the dose needed to kill cancer cells by about fivefold.

The drug targets an enzyme known as CerS2 to sharply increase production of these lipids and stress cancer cells. Healthy cells, by contrast, showed lower sensitivity to the drug in lab tests.

While the early results are promising, further preclinical and clinical trials would still be needed to determine the safety and effectiveness of DH20931 in humans.

Satya Narayan, a professor in the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, led the study with an international group of collaborators.

The researchers published their results on human-derived tumours on 21 April and presented their findings on combination therapy at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego.

Narayan likened the drug’s effects to a home’s electrical system handling a power surge.

While healthy cells act like a properly grounded and installed circuit, cancer cells are more like a jumble of mismatched wires and faulty fuses. DH20931 overwhelms cells not with electricity, but with fats.

He said: “When that surge goes into the cancer cells, they cannot handle the amount of power they are getting. The fuses burn out, the cell can’t handle the surge and it dies.”

The compound was developed at the University of Florida in the lab of Sukwong Hong.

Hong, now a professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, created DH20931 as one of many drug candidates tested for efficacy in Narayan’s lab.

In the study, researchers implanted human triple-negative breast cancer tumours into mice and treated them with DH20931.

The drug significantly slowed tumour growth without causing noticeable weight loss or signs of toxicity in the animals. In separate lab experiments, it also showed activity against other breast cancer subtypes.

In addition to increasing lipid levels, DH20931 triggers a second stress signal by flooding cells with calcium.

Together, these effects disrupt the mitochondria, the structures that produce a cell’s energy, ultimately leading to cell death.

Narayan said: “It does not just follow one pathway but it goes through multiple pathways. It’s a two-hit hypothesis.

“These pathways are common in all breast cancer types and other solid tumours, so we think this drug can be useful not only in triple-negative breast cancer but potentially other cancers as well.”

Future Fertility Inc. has announced the closing of a US$4.1 million Series A financing round.

The round was led by M Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) and Whitecap Venture Partners, with participation from new investors Sandpiper Ventures, Gaingels, and Jolt VC.

The financing will accelerate Future Fertility’s commercial expansion into Asia-Pacific and support its entry into the United States, including planned FDA 510(k) clearance for additional products as part of a broader U.S. market entry strategy.

Proceeds will also advance the development of a broader AI platform, from egg assessment through to embryo transfer, designed to support clinicians, embryologists, and patients across the full IVF journey.

M Ventures and Whitecap have supported Future Fertility’s mission to translate AI innovation into meaningful clinical outcomes since the company’s earliest stages.

Oliver Hardick, investment director, M Ventures, said: “Future Fertility is addressing a critical unmet need in reproductive medicine with a differentiated AI platform grounded in clinical data and real-world workflow integration.

“We are excited to continue supporting the company and team because we believe its technology has the potential to improve decision-making for clinicians, bring greater clarity to patients, and help advance a more personalised standard of care in fertility treatment.”

Future Fertility’s AI platform addresses a long-standing gap in fertility care: historically, there has been no objective, clinically validated method for assessing egg quality (Gardner et al., 2025), despite it being one of the most important drivers of reproductive success.

The company’s suite of deep learning tools includes VIOLET™, MAGENTA™, and ROSE™, purpose-built for egg freezing, IVF, and egg donation respectively.

The tools are based on AI models trained and validated on more than 650,000 oocyte images and are deployed in over 300 clinics across 35 countries.

Rhiannon Davies, founding and managing partner, Sandpiper Ventures, said:  “The best outcomes in fertility care globally come from better data and smarter tools. Future Fertility understands that, and they’ve built a platform that delivers on it.

“Sandpiper is proud to back a team turning rigorous science into real results for patients and clinicians alike.”

Partnerships with the world’s leading fertility networks – including IVI RMA and Eugin Group across Latin America and Europe, FertGroup Medicina Reproductiva in Brazil, and most recently announced Kato Ladies Clinic in Japan –  reflect growing demand for objective, AI-powered oocyte assessment in fertility care. In the United States, ROSE™ is newly available under an FDA 513(g) determination.

Research shows that approximately 50 per cent of IVF patients do not understand their likelihood of success, and many discontinue treatment prematurely, even though cumulative success rates improve significantly with multiple cycles (McMahon et al., 2024).

By delivering earlier clarity on egg quality, Future Fertility’s tools support more informed conversations between clinicians and patients, helping set realistic expectations and guide decisions about next steps.

Future Fertility’s growing evidence base spans seven peer-reviewed publications in Human Reproduction, Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Fertility & Sterility, and Nature’s Scientific Reports, and more than 70 scientific abstracts accepted and presented with partner clinics at conferences worldwide.

Christine Prada, CEO, Future Fertility, said: “Fertility treatment is one of the most emotionally and physically demanding experiences a person can go through.

“Every patient deserves objective data, not just a best guess, to support better decisions at critical moments in their care.

“This funding means we can bring that clarity to more patients, in more countries, at a moment when it matters most.”

Find out more about Future Fertility at futurefertility.com

Theramex has been censured over HRT failures that regulators said jeopardised patient safety.

The UK producer of HRT drugs, including Evorel and Intrarosa, was found to have breached fundamental compliance standards.

These included not updating crucial prescribing information, in some cases for several years, and not making clear that one drug must not be used during pregnancy.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority issued the public reprimand after Theramex staff blew the whistle over what it described as “alarming” compliance issues and incomplete prescribing information for Evorel and Intrarosa that “jeopardise patient safety”.

Evorel patches, which contain estradiol, are among the most prescribed forms of transdermal HRT, meaning hormone treatment delivered through the skin. More than 250,000 items were issued in the last financial year, according to NHS Business Services Authority figures.

Overall, nearly 10m items of estradiol, including gels, were prescribed in the 2024/25 financial year.

The employees’ concerns included failing to provide comprehensive side-effect information in Evorel’s prescribing information, and not updating Intrarosa’s product information since 2019.

The PMCPA also reprimanded the company over failures to specify in advertising at a reproduction and advertising conference that Yselty, used to treat uterine fibroids, should not be taken during pregnancy.

In total, the PMCPA found Theramex had breached the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s code of practice 21 times.

The panel said the breaches not only jeopardised patient safety, but that Theramex had “brought discredit upon, and reduced confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry”.

The PMCPA also condemned Theramex’s decision to leave the regulator’s jurisdiction.

“By leaving the self-regulatory framework and requiring the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to assume full responsibility for regulating it, Theramex has inevitably delayed any regulatory action and oversight,” it said.

Dr Amit Aggarwal, medical director of the ABPI, said: “Theramex has fallen seriously short of the standards expected under our strict ABPI code of practice, and it’s right that the PMCPA took action.

“It’s also disappointing that as a result, the company has decided to leave the pharmaceutical industry’s self-regulatory system, which holds companies to standards above and beyond the law.”

Julian Beach, MHRA’s executive director of healthcare quality and access, said he was disappointed Theramex had left the PMCPA, but that the MHRA would take any necessary steps to ensure patient safety.

He said: “Leaving the jurisdiction of the PMCPA does not mean a company escapes scrutiny.

“The MHRA has legal powers to investigate and act on concerns about medicines that may impact public safety. Breaches of regulations can amount to criminal offences.”

A spokesperson for Theramex said: “Upholding ethical standards, compliance, and patient safety is very important to us. We acted promptly to address these historical matters as soon as we became aware of them.

“We take these matters seriously and have undertaken a comprehensive review of our compliance framework, including commissioning an independent external audit and implementing a broad programme of enhancements.

“As part of this process, we concluded it is most appropriate to be regulated with respect to UK medicines legislation by the MHRA, while continuing to uphold the spirit and principles of the EFPIA and ABPI codes of practice.

“Therefore, we withdrew from the PMCPA’s jurisdiction in January 2026. This approach allows us to focus our resources on maintaining high standards of ethical and compliant behaviour, with patient safety.”