Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) has announced a new clinical alliance with oncology services provider GenesisCare to offer a compassionate access program with its novel lead product candidate, Veyonda, for patients with advanced, treatment-resistant, metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) being treated with theranostics.
The company said the alliance formalises a program under which Noxopharm has been making Veyonda available through GenesisCare for compassionate use in combination with 177Lu-PSMA therapy for mCRPC patients in Australia.
"Following promising clinical outcomes from the compassionate use program and early clinical research, the two companies have formalised an arrangement to make the therapy available for use in patients with few treatment alternatives," it said.
GenesisCare is one of the largest private providers of oncology services in Australia and Europe. It offers a range of treatments including radiation therapy, chemotherapy, palliative radiation and nuclear medicine (theranostics).
According to Professor Nat Lenzo, Clinical Director of Theranostics at GenesisCare and Clinical Professor at Curtin University, “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in Australia, yet treatment options for advanced metastatic prostate cancer remain limited. Theranostics is offering new hope for late stage prostate cancer patients, many of whom have exhausted conventional treatment options such as chemotherapy.
"While further studies are required, we are seeing encouraging results from the combination of Lu-PSMA and Veyonda in select patients requiring additional treatment effects and are grateful for Noxopharm’s support to increase access to this combined therapy for suitable patients.”
Dr Gisela Mautner, Chief Medical Officer of Noxopharm, said,“We are very pleased that Veyonda has been identified by GenesisCare as a therapy that shows promising early signs of improved outcomes in late stage prostate cancer patients. We look forward to continuing to work closely with GenesisCare to provide Veyonda on a compassionate use basis for the benefit of patients. Noxopharm will continue to build its research and development program for Veyonda® to document its effects in clinical trials.”
Theranostics is a new field of cancer management. Specially designed molecules are combined with a low dose diagnostic form of radiation to identify cancer location, following diagnosis these same molecules are combined with a more potent therapeutic form of radiation to kill cancer cells.
Veyonda (Idronoxil) is an experimental oncology drug that may enhance the effects of theranostic treatment with 177Lutetium-PSMA (Lu-PSMA) in men with advanced prostate cancer.