- Pharma company Noxopharm trialled 16 prostate cancer patients with its drug alongside radiation therapy
- response rate of boosted treatment effectiveness was 69 per cent across two groups
- Group One using 400mg showed a 62.5 per cent response rate and Group Two using 800mg showed a 75 per cent response rate
Aussies pharma company Noxopharm has announced today positive interim results from a prostate cancer clinical trial using its drug .
Sixteen patients with prostate-cancer used the drug alongside radiation treatment, to measure the effectiveness of the drug permitting radiation throughout cells in the body.
Across the 16 patients, an average positive response rate of 69 per cent was shown. Today’s results prompted an 18.2 per cent boost for the company in the share market.
Eight patients were treated with 400mg of Veyonda and the remaining half were treated with 800mg for response rates of 62.5 per cent and 75 per cent respectively.
Company CEO Greg van Wyk says the main focus of the study was to boost effectiveness of the radiation treatment, not see new benefits.
“Trial patients appear to be deriving benefit beyond which would be expected with radiation treatment alone,” Greg said.
“We eagerly await results from the next 16 patients in the 800 mg dose expansion cohort to see how all of these patients do over the longer-term,” Greg said.
“One of the main challenges of radiopharmaceuticals is the limit on the amount of radio-isotope that is taken up by the target cancer cells, restricting their anti-cancer effectiveness,” said Noxopharm Executive Chairman Graham Kelly.
Kelly also stated the company is confident is using the drug to augment other forms of radiotherapy in other cancers.
However, one patient did report a severe adverse case of pneumonitis during the trial.
Research Professor Louise Emmet will be delivering a presentation of the interim results at the annual Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging meeting this year.
Further information of the clinical research will be published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
NOX shares are currently trading at 65 cents each in a $67.43 million company market cap.