Bionomics, CEO win industry awards

Bionomics (ASX:BNO) has won the Innovative Asian Biotech of the Year award at the BioPharma Asia Industry Awards.

The awards were held this week at the BioPharma Asia Convention in Singapore.

Bionomics was recognised for its ability to adopt innovative technologies to develop new drugs, and for implementing new processes and technologies for drug development that achieve quantifiable and sustainable results.

Bionomics CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen was also awarded the Life Science Woman Executive of the Year award for her contributions to the biotech industry.

Last month, Bionomics announced its results for the first half of FY14. The company ended the period with cash on hand of $20.4 million, down from $22.4 million at the beginning.

Higher R&D costs associated with the company’s multiple drug development programs led to a 69% increase in net loss for the half year to $6.8 million. Revenue meanwhile declined 5% to $5.1 million.

During 1H14, the company signed a research and option licensing agreement with Merck focused on the discovery of new small molecule pain treatment. Bionomics stands to gain up to US$172 million ($191 million) before royalties from the deal.

The company also commenced IND-enabling studies for anticancer compound BNC101.

Looking ahead, the company said that partnering discussions for Alzheimer’s drug candidate BNC375 and MS candidate BNC164 continue and “are anticipated to yield significant value”. The first human trials of BNC101 in metastatic colorectal cancer are also due to commence this year.

Bionomics (ASX:BNO) shares were trading 2.01% higher at $0.76 as of around 2 pm on Thursday.