SYDNEY, Dec. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Novogen Ltd (ASX: NRT, NASDAQ: NVGN) is an Australian/US biotechnology company that has developed a first-in-class experimental chemotherapeutic known as Cantrixil, which is due to enter a first-in-man clinical study in 2015.
The Company has posted a video on its website reporting on the status of this clinical trial program. The video can be accessed via its YouTube channel here: http://goo.gl/ljpl6M
Cantrixil is a unique development in chemotherapy, being the first cytotoxic chemotherapy to be developed specifically for injection into the body's cavities. The peritoneal and pleural cavities are involved in a large proportion of cancers, and yet the vast majority of chemotherapies continue to be administered in a way that delivers chemotherapies to the cancer via the bloodstream.
Delivering the drug directly into the cavity where the cancer is spreading ensures cancer cells are exposed to levels of drug some hundreds of times greater than via the blood.
Cantrixil has been developed jointly by Novogen and Yale University and is owned by their joint-venture company, CanTx Inc.
Cantrixil is a construct of active drug candidate, TRXE-002, in a cyclodextrin shell. On injection into the cavity, the shell dissolves to release the active drug. Cantrixil has been designed to be non-irritant and to not be dose-limiting due to side-effects.
As Novogen and CanTx CEO, Dr. Graham Kelly, explains in the video, "The outstanding feature of Cantrixil is its ability to kill the full range of cancer cells within a tumour. If we are to make any meaningful progress in the survival prospects of patients with cancers such as those of the ovary, uterus, oesophagus, stomach, appendix, large bowel, pancreas and lung, then we have to find a way of killing the cancer stem cells that maintain the cancer."
TRXE-002 is the first drug candidate to emerge from the Novogen super-benzopyran drug platform that for the first time kills all forms of cancer cells through a common mechanism. The platform does not rely on a targeted therapeutic approach of identifying a cancer stem cell market, a strategy that carries the risk of the cancer cell developing detours around the blocked target.
Dr. Kelly also explains how, in a world-first, Cantrixil has proven, in a stringent animal model of human ovarian cancer, to completely block cancer development.
Cantrixil is set to come into the clinic in Australian hospitals in the first instance, followed by US centres. The Phase 1 study will be enrolling patients with a variety of cancers that either have arisen in the abdomen or have metastasised there and which have become unresponsive to therapy.
To stay informed about the Novogen clinical program, readers are invited to sign up to receive the Company newsletters and press releases by visiting www.novogen.com or contacting Novogen directly.
About CanTx
CanTx Ltd is a private biotechnology company based in New Haven, Connecticut, and established as a joint venture between Novogen and Yale University. CanTx is dedicated to the development of anti-cancer drugs for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
About Novogen Limited
Novogen is a public, Australian drug-development company whose shares trade on both the Australian Securities Exchange ('NRT') and NASDAQ ('NVGN'). The Novogen Group includes a New Haven CT -- based joint venture company, CanTx Inc, with Yale University.
Novogen has two main drug technology platforms: super-benzopyrans (SBPs) and anti-tropomyosins (ATMs). SBP compounds have been created to kill the full range of cells within a tumor, but particularly the cancer stem cells. The ATM compounds target the microfilament component of the cancer cell and when used in conjunction with standard anti-microtubular drugs, result in comprehensive and fatal destruction of the cancer cell's cytoskeleton. Ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, malignant ascites, prostate cancer, neural cancers (glioblastoma, neuroblastoma) and melanoma are the key clinical indications being pursued, with the ultimate objective of employing both technologies as a unified approach to first-line therapy.
Further information is available on the Company's website, www.novogen.com.
For more information please contact:
Corporate Contact
Executive Chairman & CEO
Novogen Group
Graham.Kelly@novogen.com
+61 (0) 2 9472 4100
Media Enquiries
Operations Manager
Novogen Group
Cristyn.Humphreys@novogen.com
+61 (0) 2 9472 4111
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SOURCE Novogen Ltd