Invion (ASX:IVX) surged higher after announcing that it had completed the dosing of the first patient in its Phase I/II non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) trial conducted at Veracity Clinical Research (Veracity) in Brisbane.

The trial marks a significant milestone for Invion and is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its lead drug candidate INV043, a novel photosensitiser developed in Australia for use in Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) for the treatment of multiple cancers.

• First patient has been dosed in Invion’s open label Phase I/II non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) trial using topical INV043.
• The study is being conducted at Veracity Clinical Research’s facilities, based in Queensland Australia.
• Skin cancer is one of the world’s most common cancers and NMSC constitutes >98% of all skin cancers with the global treatment market to hit US$21.1 billion by 2032.
• Preclinical studies indicate INV043 may have distinct advantages over current NMSC treatments, such as efficacy without scarring and with minimal pain.

The NMSC trial follows the release of promising results from a Phase II prostate cancer trial using the same active pharmaceutical ingredient, INV043. Once the NMSC trial results have been analysed, in addition to progressing the NMSC program, Invion plans to leverage this data into a planned Phase II anogenital cancer trial using topical INV043, and potentially including the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) on the back of solid in vivo data from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Invion, Thian Chew, said: “Having the first patient dosed in our NMSC trial is a significant milestone for Invion in demonstrating the potential for the Photosoft technology to address limitations and undesirable side effects of current standard of care for NMSCs, including scarring and pain.”

“On the back of the recently announced prostate cancer results, this trial can also provide clinical evidence that INV043 can be safely used in more than one formulation to treat multiple cancers. This can then open up the potential for our next-generation PDT to become an important alternative modality for treating cancers.”