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- Clinical-stage drug development company Noxopharm (NOX) is preparing to open a CEP-2 study into its Veyonda drug candidate
- The study will test the chemo-enhancing effect of Veyonda when used with lower dosages of chemotherapy in 40 patients with soft tissue sarcomas
- Noxopharm says it is confident the majority of chemotherapy drugs in use today would benefit from being combined with Veyonda, creating a multi-billion-dollar drug opportunity
- NOX’s strong cash position following a $23 million capital raise in December 2020 will allow the study to proceed, although the company is continuing to seek global sources of funding
- Noxopharm shares are trading flat at 48.5 cents at 10:05 am AEST
Clinical-stage drug development company Noxopharm (NOX) is preparing to open a CEP-2 study into its Veyonda drug candidate.
CEP-2 is a study testing the chemo-enhancing effect of Veyonda when used in lower dosages of chemotherapy in around 40 patients with soft tissue sarcomas. The study will see a higher dosage of Veyonda used than in the company’s previous CEP-1 pilot study.
Noxopharm aims to establish Veyonda as a standard booster of all four major forms of cancer therapy, chemotherapy, external radiotherapy, internal radiotherapy, and checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
The company says after 50 years, chemotherapy still remains the backbone of cancer therapy, a trend which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future with the global chemotherapy market predicted to reach more than U.S.$50 billion (roughly A$64 billion) by 2024.
Noxopharm says it is confident the majority of chemotherapy drugs in use today would benefit from being combined with Veyonda, creating a multi-billion-dollar drug opportunity.
This announcement follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the investigational new drug application for Veyonda, in combination with common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin for patients with soft tissue sarcomas.
Sarcomas have very limited treatment options with only an estimated 14 per cent of soft tissue sarcomas responding to chemotherapy. Noxopharm says it is confident Veyonda has the means to change this, increasing survival and response rates significantly.
Combining drugs with Veyonda to achieve greater anti-cancer potency offers the potential for renewed patent life, a highly prized outcome in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Soft tissue sarcomas are in that basket of cancers where there has been remarkably little advance in survival statistics over the past few decades, and the horizon looks to hold little change,” said Noxopharm CEO Dr Graham Kelly.
“What we have seen to date with Veyonda gives us confidence that a combination of Veyonda and doxorubicin has the capacity to make that change.”
The company’s strong cash position following a $23 million capital raise in December 2020 is allowing it to proceed with this study, although the company will continue to seek global sources of non-dilutive funding.
Noxopharm shares are trading flat at 48.5 cents at 10:05 am AEST.
