Noxopharm welcomes prestigious scientific journal reporting success of Veyonda® as booster of chemotherapy in late-stage cancer patients

Noxopharm Ltd’s (ASX:NOX) results from a CEP-1 study (Chemotherapy Enhancement Program) Phase 1a/1b trial that shows the success of Veyonda® as a booster of chemotherapy in late-stage cancer patients have been published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Current Therapeutic Research. The patients selected for this trial had late-stage metastatic solid cancers (breast, ovarian, lung, prostate) that had failed previous treatments and were progressive and were considered unlikely to respond to further chemotherapy.  This study demonstrated that the majority of patients had stabilised their disease throughout the treatment course and by the final treatment cycle, 83% of patients treated with 800mg Veyonda had stable disease or a partial response.  The one patient with a partial response had an almost 100% reduction in tumour size at the end of the study.  “Validation of science behind Veyonda”  The company previously reported that European researchers found that Veyonda, given in combination with low doses of the widely used chemotherapy drug, carboplatin, resulted in a positive outcome in a high proportion of patients, and was safe to use. Noxopharm chief medical officer Dr Gisela Mautner said: “Publication in a peer-reviewed journal means that this paper was rigorously evaluated by independent scientists before being accepted for publication.  “It is heartening to receive this further validation of the science behind Veyonda.” Veyonda 4-pillar strategy The chemo-enhancing program (CEP) is one of the company’s 4-pillars Veyonda® clinical program designed to establish Veyonda as a blockbuster drug. The Noxopharm 4-pillars Veyonda strategy is aimed at proving the ability of Veyonda to enhance the anti-cancer effectiveness of:  Externally delivered radiation (DARRT);  Internally delivered radiation (LuPIN);  Checkpoint inhibitors (IONIC); and  Chemotherapy (CEP).  Noxopharm CEO Dr Graham Kelly said: “Our 4-pillars Veyonda strategy is behind an ambitious goal of bringing Veyonda to market as a general-purpose drug that boosts the effectiveness of common cancer therapies.  “One of those pillars, the CEP program, is looking at using Veyonda to make standard chemotherapy more effective in general, but to do it in a way that also makes it a lot safer.  “If we can achieve that, more patients should benefit with better responses and fewer side-effects.  “Potentially, it also expands the number of patients willing to undergo chemotherapy.  “The trial data published today puts us well on the road to achieving this goal.” “Boosting effectiveness and safety of chemotherapy” The CEP-1 trial involved using Veyonda in combination with low dosages of the standard chemotherapy drug, carboplatin. Dr Kelly said: “In the laboratory, idronoxil has proven able to render cancer cells hundreds of times more sensitive to standard chemotherapy drugs. “The aim of CEP is to use that dramatic sensitising ability to drop the dosage of chemotherapies to safer levels, while at the same time boosting their anti-cancer effect.  “In CEP-1, we used carboplatin dosages lower than those normally used. “Those dosages would not be expected to have any meaningful anti-cancer effect on their own.  “However, carboplatin looks to have worked here in cancers that had stopped responding to chemotherapy.  “Chemotherapy remains the predominant form of cancer drug therapy for most forms of cancer, making the use of Veyonda a highly attractive proposition for boosting both the effectiveness and safety of this major form of cancer management.” Next steps  This CEP-1 trial has provided important translational evidence of being able to achieve this effect in the clinic.  The highest dose of Veyonda used in the CEP-1 study was 800mg per dose, but since that time, additional clinical studies have shown higher doses of Veyonda up to 1800mg have been well tolerated.  This paves the way for future studies to encompass an even higher dose with potentially added efficacy benefits. Noxopharm is reviewing its clinical programs portfolio in respect to a further study in combination with chemotherapy and will provide a market update in the near future.