Jennie Young was one of the first patients to receive Veyonda, Noxopharm’s (ASX: NOX) proprietary drug. Administered on compassionate grounds, her doctors believe that she responded to it positively.
She had leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that affects smooth muscle tissue. Soft tissue sarcomas like hers have limited treatment options with only 14% responding to chemotherapy.
Jennie’s experience was a catalyst for the initiation of Noxopharm’s latest study to investigate the use of Veyonda in conjunction with existing chemotherapy drugs to deliver better results for soft tissue sarcoma patients like her.
Noxopharm have dedicated their second Chemotherapy Enhancement Program study (CEP-2) to Jennie’s memory.
For fifty years, chemotherapy has remained the backbone of cancer treatment. This is unlikely to change anytime in the foreseeable future with the chemotherapy market predicted to reach a value of US$50 billion by 2024.
Except, chemo is far from the holy grail of cancer treatment with several cancers exhibiting poor responsiveness to treatment. Other options for treatment include internal and external radiotherapy and checkpoint inhibitor therapy.
That’s where Noxopharm comes in. Their drug Veyonda is designed to work in conjunction with chemotherapy drugs to enhance its effects and deliver better clinical outcomes and remission rates for patients.
The Company’s ‘Investigational New Drug’ application has been granted by the FDA and Veyonda has been approved to be trialed as a first line treatment.
They are now moving forward with a Phase 1 trial to provide proof-of-principle that Veyonda enhances chemotherapy. Approximately 40 patients will receive the drug in combination with the current standard of care chemotherapy drug Doxorubicin as a first line of treatment.
Noxopharm has appointed Parexel Biotech, a contract research organisation, to oversee the study. The clinical protocol has already been established and site selection is underway.
The CEP-2 study builds upon the CEP-1 study which demonstrated Veyonda’s chemo enhancing effect in patients with advanced solid cancers such as breast, ovarian, lung and prostate cancers.
The Company hopes that data from this trial will prompt further study of Veyonda’s effectiveness. Their ultimate goal is to establish Veyonda as a “standard booster” for all major forms of cancer therapy.
Disrupting the chemotherapy market offers Noxopharm a multi billion dollar drug opportunity.
The Company is in a strong cash position following a successful raise of $23 million completed in December 2020 but continues to seek alternative sources of non-dilutive funding to continue their work.
Samantha Freidin is a business journalist at Emerald Financial whilst also completing a Masters of Marketing and Digital Communications at Monash University.
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