Novogen spikes on JV's ovarian cancer discovery

Novogen’s (ASX:NRT) new US joint venture CanTx has discovered that its lead ovarian cancer drug candidate Trilexium can penetrate and kill tumour cell structures.

During lab research, Trilexium has proved to be highly effective at destroying ovarian cancer spheroids, built up by cancer stem cells isolated from the tumours of ovarian cancer patients.

When injected into a mouse model, ovarian cancer spheroids form highly vascularised tumours mirroring the human disease. The technique for forming ovarian cancer spheroids was discovered at Yale University, Novogen’s minority partner in the CanTx JV.

“In terms of drug discovery, [ovarian cancer spheroids] serve as a robust screen to identify drug candidates worth progressing into expensive animal studies. They come directly from drug-resistant tumours and SOC drugs such as paclitaxel and carboplatin have no effect on them,” Yale Medical School professor Dr Gil Mor said.

Mor is co-leading clinical development work at CanTx. He said the new discovery “demonstrates that Trilexium can diffuse into the spheroid and gives us confidence that it should be able to kill ovarian tumours in vivo”.

Novogen and Yale formed the CanTx joint venture earlier this month to help advance ovarian cancer drugs based on the former’s super-benzopryan technology into the clinic.

CanTx is 85% owned by Novogen, and Novogen CEO Dr Graham Kelly is in charge at the new company.

Shares in Novogen (ASX:NRT) climbed as high as $0.30 in the wake of the announcement, from a closing price of $0.22 on Friday. The shares were trading 18.2% higher at $0.26 as of around 12.30 pm on Monday.