Novogen's drug reverses resistance

Shares in Sydney drug-developer Novogen (ASX: NRT, NASDAQ:NVGN) were up 6 per cent to $5.35 today on news that experiments with its cancer-drug booster phenoxodiol had confirmed its power to restore the ability conventional cancer drugs to kill drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells in vitro.

Phenoxodiol, derived from an extract of red clover, has already been granted fast-track status by the US Food and Drug Administration, on the basis of a multi-centre Phase Ia/IIb trial, in which X-ray studies showed it shrank tumours in women with recurrent, drug-resistant ovarian cancer.

Novogen's US subsidiary Marshall Edwards, informed the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market today that Yale University researchers have found that phenoxodiol re-sensitises drug-resistant ovarian cancer to standard taxane and platinum chemotherapy drugs.

The Yale team reported its results in the January issue of Oncology Research (Vol 14, pp 567-578).

Moreover, the drug's synergestic effect was so great that doxotaxal (Sanofi-Aventis' Taxotere) was effective at only 100th of its stand-alone dose.

According to Assoc Prof Gil Mor from the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine, said the findings have two potential clinical outcomes.

Docotaxel could be used to restore efficacy in patients who have become unresponsive to the drug, or other standard chemotherapy agents, and the dosage of standard chemotherapy agents could be dramatically reduced, sparing patients the toxic side effects associated with aggressive chemotherapy, such as hair loss and nausea.