Novogen subsidiary signs with NIH agency for cancer trials

Marshall Edwards Inc, a listed subsidiary of Australian pharma Novogen (ASX: NRT), has signed a cooperative agreement with a National Institutes of Health agency in the United States to examine clinical applications for its anti-cancer compound, phenoxodiol.

Marshall Edwards, which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), announced it had entered into a Materials Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with NIH agency the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).

The NIDCR is focused on the research of new therapies for oral, head and neck cancers, with the latest agreement part of an international collaboration aimed at defining the clinical potential of phenoxodiol.

The drug is the first anti-cancer compound licensed by Marshall Edwards from Novogen and is currently being tested on patients with advanced cancers in American and Australian hospitals.

Phenoxodiol is a modified version of a plant chemical known as genistein reported since the 1980s to have anti-cancer properties, particularly against human prostate cancer cells.

The small molecule compound, from the family isoflavenes, has been found to have multiple anti-cancer effects including stopping cancer from dividing and spreading, inhibiting the formation of new blood vessels to the cancer and inducing cancer cell death.

The drug, mostly given orally or intravenously, has in test tube studies shown to be effective against cancers including breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, colorectal, melanoma, mesothelioma, leukaemias, rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroglioma.

Phenoxodiol was developed through a Novogen research program, with Marshall Edwards owning options on all the company's anti-cancer compounds.

In a statement, Marshall Edwards chairman and Novogen executive director Dr Graham Kelly said that separate to phenoxodiol, Novogen had found several other compounds with similar activity.

"The action of these drugs against targets so fundamental to cancer cell survival suggests that they can kill cancer cells independent of the type of mutation behind the cancer and independent of their development of resistance to other drugs," Kelly said.

He was unavailable for comment today on the importance of the NIDCR agreement in the broader context of the phenoxodiol program.

At the time of writing, Novogen's shares were trading about 4.7 per cent, or 8 cents higher, at $1.78.