6 March 2013
ASX RELEASE
Novogen and The Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research join forces
to bring comprehensive cancer therapies to market.
Novogen Ltd today announces the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
with The Ingham Institute in a cooperative venture to develop the new class of
super-benzopyran molecules as anti-cancer drugs intended to offer
comprehensive cancer therapy.
As part of its objective to bring CS-6 and a number of related drugs to market,
Novogen is establishing a global network of research groups in a collaboration
that will provide the necessary infrastructure to underpin this endeavour. The
Ingham Institute is the first and key participant in that network.
The Ingham Institute is a partnership between the South Western Sydney Local
Health District, University of Western Sydney, University of New South Wales
and Liverpool Hospital. Fundamental and translational cancer research is one of
the Institute’s main areas of activity.
Novogen is seeking to develop a family of drugs intended to deliver
comprehensive therapy against certain cancers with notoriously poor prognosis.
They are glioblastoma multiforme, pancreatic cancer, late-stage ovarian cancer,
melanoma and colo-rectal cancer. Comprehensive therapy refers to the ability of
a therapy to kill both cancer cells and cancer stem cells, an approach increasingly
being seen as the answer to tumour recurrence with highly resistant tumours.
CS-6 is the Company’s first lead candidate compound being developed primarily
for glioblastoma, with late-stage ovarian cancer as a secondary clinical target. An
active analog design and manufacturing program is underway with the aim of
identifying more lead candidate compounds which will be assessed for their
potential benefit in pancreatic and colo-rectal cancers and melanoma. The global
collaborative network of which The Ingham Institute is part will participate in
identifying and developing this new approach to cancer therapy.
Dr Graham Kelly, Novogen CEO, said, “The FDA’s recent announcement of the
availability of Breakthrough Therapeutic Designation for drugs such as CS-6,
means that we need to work with groups that have the capacity to fast-track
early-stage clinical testing”, said Dr Graham Kelly, Novogen CEO. “We see the
relationship with The Ingham Institute and other global research groups as key
to being able to bring CS-6 and other drugs into the clinic in the shortest possible
time.”
About Novogen
Novogen Ltd is a public Australian biotechnology company whose shares trade
on both the Australian Stock Exchange (symbol ‘NRT’) and NASDAQ (symbol
‘NVGN’). The Company is based in Sydney, Australia and is focused on the
development of a family of novel anti-cancer drugs based on comprehensive
anti-cancer activity against both cancer cells and cancer stem cells. The
Company’s inaugural drug candidate is CS-6.
About CS-6
CS-6 belongs to a new class of drug candidates intended to treat most forms of
cancer in a comprehensive manner, targeting both cancer cells and their
progenitor cells - cancer stem cells. CS-6 shows broad anti-proliferative and
cytotoxic activity against human cancer cells and ovarian cancer stem cells. CS-6
also has been designed deliberately to meet the major known criteria for
crossing the blood-brain barrier, and for that reason is being developed as a
first-line for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the main form of primary
brain cancer.
Further information
Contact Dr Graham Kelly, Chief Executive Officer.
T: (61 2) 9878 0088
M: (61) 0459 200 095
E: Graham.Kelly@novogen.com
Further information is available on the Company’s web site, www.novogen.com