Bionomics progresses angiogenesis program

Adelaide company Bionomics (ASX:BNO) has progressed its international patent application covering novel angiogenesis targets into the examination stage in a number of key jurisdictions including the US, Europe and Japan.

The patent includes the first 114 of a total of 160 genes discovered by the company in its Angene program, which looked at differential expression of genes at various time points of capillary tube formation.

CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen said the company had identified a number of genes with interesting properties, including one that appeared to be involved in two distinct signalling processes -- the PDGF and VEGF pathways.

"We're pretty excited about this one, it's got some unique attributes for targeting with small molecules," she said.

Bionomics is already collaborating with Danish monoclonal antibody company Genmab to develop some therapeutic antibodies to some of the targets, and is also planning to look for small molecule drugs with activity against targets.

"Just as we are building our CNS drug discovery capabilities, we're also building our cancer drug discovery capabilities," Rathjen said.

She noted that the company would probably focus on a small number of genes, and look at licensing out other targets for development by others.

Angiogenesis as a target for cancer therapeutics has recently been boosted by the FDA approval of Genentech's anti-angiogenesis monoclonal antibody Avastin.

Rathjen said the approval would provide validation of angiogenesis genes as a target for drug discovery.