Marshall Edwards, Inc. Granted Investigative New Drug For Triphendiol

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials;  Cancer / Oncology;  Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals
Article Date: 09 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PST

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Marshall Edwards, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSHL) announced that it has been granted an Investigative New Drug (IND) approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration to undertake clinical studies with triphendiol as a chemosensitising agent in combination with gemcitabine. This approval will enable a Phase Ib study of triphendiol in combination with gemcitabine in patients with unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic and bile duct cancers.

About Triphendiol

Triphendiol (NV-196) is an investigational drug in the Marshall Edwards, Inc. oncology drug pipeline, currently being developed as an orally-delivered chemosensitizing agent, intended for use in conjunction with standard chemotoxic anti-cancer drugs for the treatment of late stage pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and melanoma. Triphendiol was granted orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for pancreatic cancer and cholangiocarcinoma in January 2008 and for treatment of stage IIb-IV malignant melanoma in February 2008.

Triphendiol is broadly cytostatic and cytotoxic against most forms of human cancer cells in vitro, and has been shown to cause cell cycle arrest (or stop cells increasing in number) and to induce apoptosis (or initiate programmed cell death) in various cancer cell lines. Biological studies suggest a mechanism of cytotoxicity that involves mitochondrial depolarization and downregulation of XIAP. It exhibits high selectivity, little effect on non-tumor cells and no observable toxicity in animals at therapeutically effective doses. In human studies conducted in Australia, no adverse events or side effects have been reported when administered to volunteers.

About Marshall Edwards, Inc.

Marshall Edwards, Inc. is a specialist oncology company focused on the clinical development of novel anti-cancer therapeutics. These derive from a flavonoid technology platform, which has generated a number of novel compounds characterized by broad ranging activity against a range of cancer cell types with few side effects. The combination of anti-tumor cell activity and low toxicity is believed to be a result of the ability of these compounds to target an enzyme present in the cell membrane of cancer cells, thereby inhibiting the production of pro-survival proteins within the cell. Marshall Edwards, Inc. has licensed rights from Novogen Limited (ASX: NRT) (NASDAQ: NVGN) to bring three oncology drugs -- phenoxodiol, triphendiol and NV-143 -- to market globally. The Company's lead investigational drug, phenoxodiol, is in a Phase III multinational multi-centered clinical trial for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. More information on the trial can be found at http://www.OVATUREtrial.com.

Marshall Edwards, Inc. is majority owned by Novogen, an Australian biotechnology company that is specializing in the development of therapeutics based on a flavonoid technology platform. Novogen is developing a range of therapeutics across the fields of oncology, cardiovascular disease and inflammatory diseases. More information on phenoxodiol and on the Novogen group of companies can be found at http://www.marshalledwardsinc.com and http://www.novogen.com.

Under U.S. law, a new drug cannot be marketed until it has been investigated in clinical trials and approved by the FDA as being safe and effective for the intended use. Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should be aware that our actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, our failure to successfully commercialize our product candidates; costs and delays in the development and/or FDA approval, or the failure to obtain such approval, of our product candidates; uncertainties in clinical trial results; our inability to maintain or enter into, and the risks resulting from our dependence upon, collaboration or contractual arrangements necessary for the development, manufacture, commercialization, marketing, sales and distribution of any products; competitive factors; our inability to protect our patents or proprietary rights and obtain necessary rights to third party patents and intellectual property to operate our business; our inability to operate our business without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of others; general economic conditions; the failure of any products to gain market acceptance; our inability to obtain any additional required financing; technological changes; government regulation; changes in industry practice; and one-time events. We do not intend to update any of these factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.

http://www.novogen.com