• The big red kidney bus has hit the road to provide mobile dialysis in NSW
  • Recce Pharma says R327 can ‘significantly’ reduce SARS-CoV-2 in hamsters
  • Emyria and UWA ship 4th batch of MDMA analogues for safety screening

 

Kidney Health Australia’s NSW holiday dialysis program, the Big Red Kidney Bus, is hitting the road again.

More than 14,500 people nationwide and 4,300 in NSW require dialysis to clean their blood each day due to kidney disease, with an average of three local hospital visits a week and 60 hours strapped to a machine every month, meaning time with families and friends, and holiday time, is either heavily restricted or not possible.

But the fancy state-of-the-art bus allows people affected by kidney disease and needing haemodialysis the opportunity to go on holiday across the state, with access to treatment on the road.

“When people go on dialysis, they are suddenly living a far more restricted life and mourn their loss of freedom,” Kidney Health Australia CEO Chris Forbes says. 

“Our aim with the program is to return some of that freedom to them – something we all take for granted, or at least we used to before the pandemic.”

The bus will travel to different locations throughout NSW each year, staying for up to six weeks at a time, with its first stop at Bateman’s Bay in early November.

 

Who’s got health news out today?

 

RECCE PHARMACEUTICALS (ASX:RCE)

Reece has released an update on the findings in SARS-CoV-2 studies, which have demonstrated R327 can ‘significantly’ reduce SARS-CoV-2 in hamsters. And not just any old hamsters – Syrian golden hamsters.

Apparently, they’re the ‘gold standard’ in COVID studies because they display clinical signs and can transmit the virus like humans.

Recce is delighted by the results – the hamsters probably not so much – but further testing must be completed before R327 is confirmed as being safe or effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, such as human clinical studies. 

 

EMYRIA (ASX:EMD)

Emyria and the University of Western Australia (UWA) have shipped their fourth batch of 14 unique MDMA analogues for safety screening with Eurofins (EPA:ERF). 

The unique library now exceeds 140 proprietary, neurologically active compounds, with the goal to grow and screen a unique drug-discovery pipeline of novel MDMA analogues to identify new chemical entities and drug candidates with the potential to address major unmet needs in mental health and neurological disorders.

Five high priority compounds have previously been shipped to the USA for evaluation with specialist neuroscience CRO, PsychoGenics and additional metabolic studies have commenced with an Australian CRO to help determine the metabolic half-life of a priority set of compounds. 

 

NUTRITIONAL GROWTH SOLUTIONS (ASX:NGS)

The company has received positive results from open extension (6-12 months) clinical trial on its Grow Daily Boys 10+ formula, finding significant dose-response correlations between the consumption of Grow Daily Boys 10+ and the gain in height, weight, and muscle-mass. 

Participants who consumed at least 50% of the recommended daily dose of Grow Daily Boys 10+ for either six or 12 months maintained their average height increase rate throughout the year, while poor consumers (who consumed less than 50%) displayed a decrease in growth rate. 

“The Healthy Heights® range is not a one-size-fits-all product,” CEO and MD Liron Fendell said.

“As children grow older the essential nutrients they require for optimal growth change, as does their ratio. 

“These clinical trials help show the reasons we create a range of different formulations specifically for boys or girls, at different ages and stages of growth – from toddlers through to pre-teens.”

 

TELIX PHARMACEUTICALS (ASX:TLX)

Telix has released preliminary data from two separate studies of TLX250-CDx (89Zr-DFO-girentuximab) in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Early results in the OPALESCENCE Phase II study of TLX250-CDx in triple-negative breast cancer suggest potential for girentuximab as an imaging agent and therapeutic, with 83% patient lesions having CAIX strong expression allowing TLX250-CDx immunoPET detection, “showing promise for further investigation” the company says. 

And preliminary data from the PERTINENCE pilot open-label, feasibility study of alpha therapy shows “encouraging tumour targeting and biodistribution with TLX250-CDx, and no systemic distribution of radiation”. 

“These results are an important step towards using TLX250 with an alpha emitting isotope for the first time in humans,” Telix chief medical officer Dr Colin Hayward said. 

“Telix is looking forward to continuing to support ATONCO in its development of 211At-labelled TLX250 for patients with NMIBC and establishing CAIX as a therapeutic target beyond kidney cancer in a series of important scientific studies.” 

 

RCE, EMD, NGS and TLX share prices today:

 

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Nutritional Growth Solutions is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

 

 

 

Read MoreBiotechDrug DevelopmentHealth

Featured Companies

You might be interested in