20 July 2020
Key points:
- Pre-clinical data indicates that idronoxil (active ingredient in Veyonda®) achieves major goal in converting immunologically ‘COLD’ tumours to ‘HOT’
- ‘COLD’ to ‘HOT’ conversion restores cancer-fighting immune cells to tumours, seen as a prerequisite in expanding the annual US$20 billion immuno-oncology drug market
- Two independent laboratories separately confirm the effect in different cancer types
- Noxopharm to commence discussions with global oncology firms
- Patent lodged on potentially highly valuable intellectual property
Sydney, 20 July 2020: Important pre-clinical data from two independent research groups confirms that idronoxil (IDX), the active ingredient in Noxopharm’s Veyonda, achieves a major goal in restoring cancer-fighting immune function within ‘COLD’ micro-tumours by converting them to ‘HOT’. This action has long been regarded as a fundamental goal to enable immuno-oncology drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to work in more patients and in more cancer types. ICIs have been hailed as the future of cancer therapy, but are poorly effective in ‘COLD’ tumours. With ‘COLD’ tumours believed to be the majority of human tumours,1 a treatment combining ICIs with a drug that makes a tumour ‘HOT’ has very significant commercial potential and is a major priority of global oncology firms.
Other pre-clinical and clinical data held by Noxopharm, together with the new research data, leads the Company to believe it is close to claiming the first drug capable of converting ‘COLD’ tumours to ‘HOT’ tumours across multiple cancer types in a well-tolerated way.
Dr Graham Kelly, Noxopharm CEO, said, “This is exciting news because it suggests that Veyonda could hold the answer to arguably the biggest challenge currently facing the oncology world, that of restoring the cancer-fighting ability of the body’s immune system in order to achieve higher response rates to immuno- oncology drugs.”
