Global Recognition For India Based Startup Mestastop Solutions, Focused On Research In Cancer Metastasis

Bangalore-based biotech startup Mestastop Solutions has been awarded the Best Metastasis R&D Specialist for 2025 by the UK-based Global Health and Pharma Group (GHP). This is the fourth time in a row that Mestastop has won this prestigious award. Mestastop also received the GHP Innovation Excellence Award in 2025, the second time in a row.

The UK-based GHP Group awards section highlights recent developments in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, Focusing on contributions that reflect ongoing trends and progress in global health.

90% of cancer deaths are due to metastasis, the spreading of the primary tumour. Several attempts to discover new drugs to delay metastasis have failed in the clinics. Mestastop took an innovative approach to identify the biological information hidden in the primary tumour that will eventually drive metastasis by working with primary patient tumour samples and following up on their journey till metastasis in up to three years. They recreated the metastasis biology on the bench by dividing it into thirty steps. They characterized each patient's primary tumours against these steps, collating thirty sets of biology data for each patient. After a three-year follow-up, eighteen out of fifty-two patients that they studied developed metastasis. Mestastop used machine learning algorithms to identify which biology data would explain why some patients developed metastasis and others did not. Based on this translational data, the company subsequently identified potential targets for metastasis that had not been previously explored for therapeutic purposes. Currently, Mestastop is working on three such targets and has already identified hit series with one hundred per cent inhibition of metastasis in animal models.

As most cancer drugs are discovered in the West and are not affordable to Indian patients due to IP restrictions, Mestastop developed a novel strategy for drug repurposing to delay the metastasis of primary tumour patients in an adjuvant setting. In short, scientists performed a retrospective clinical trial on 250 primary cancer patients and followed up with them for a minimum of five years. Using machine learning algorithms, they identified non-oncology drugs taken by these patients for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and anxiety that would have a positive effect on patient survival. Then, they validated five such identified drugs on their proprietary translational platforms to detect their ability to delay metastasis in the laboratory bench and animals. Two identified drugs are now being proposed for Phase II clinical trials in India, with the first molecule under documentation for filing to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for clinical trial approval.

Dr Ashok K Vaid, Chairman of Medical Oncology at Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon, and advisor of Mestastop Solutions for the last six years, was delighted with the company's progress. "The worst nightmare of cancer patients who have been cured after surgery and adjuvant therapy is that the cancer might return anytime, and they live their life in between scans. Eventually, many of them develop metastasis, and we cannot do anything about it. If this works, then we might could represent a major advance. I hope for the best, and Medanta would love to participate in this clinical trial".

With the recent furore over deep tech in India and the lack of innovation, Mestastop’s efforts have the potential to improve patient outcomes and contribute to the vision of a developed India. Whether they will be able to do that or not, only time will tell.