Bionomics fills quota for renal cancer trial

Bionomics (ASX:BNO) has completed enrolment for a phase II trial of anticancer candidate BNC105 in renal cancer.

The company has enrolled 135 patients in sites across the US, Australia and Singapore. Patients are being treated with BNC105 in combination with Novartis’ Afinitor (everolimus).

Bionomics CEO Deborah Rathjen said the trial marks the first time a vascular disrupting agent (BNC105) is being tested in conjunction with an mTOR inhibitor.

“It is particularly exciting to reach this milestone in a trial which has the potential to create a new paradigm for the treatment of renal cancer,” she said.

“We have always said that we would be looking to partner this program once we had sufficient data from our clinical trials and achieving this milestone is an important step in the path to partnership.”

Vascular disrupting agents attack tumour blood vessels while leaving healthy vessels untouched, and Afinitor blocks the mTOR driven recovery pathway for damaged renal tumours.

The trial is comparing the effects of both treatments concurrently against a control group receiving Afinitor alone. All the patients enrolled have failed prior therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The primary end point will be an improvement in six-month progression free survival.

Bionomics is separately trialling BNC105 in ovarian cancer. The company also has a second cancer drug candidate - BNC101, which targets cancer stem cells. Bionomics recently commenced manufacturing for BNC101 in preparation for clinical trials next year.

Bionomics shares were trading 3.9% lower at $0.37 as of around 1 pm on Tuesday.