ASX Health Stocks: Anatara moves rapidly to Stage 2 in Phase 1/2 bowel syndrome trial

Anatara to progress in Phase 1/2 clinical trial of bowel syndrome
Noxopharm to present data at conference for pancreatic cancer

Anatara Lifesciences (ASX:ANR) surged 11% this morning after announcing positive results from Stage 1 of its Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Stage 1 has successfully met the study objectives of confirming safety and the optimum dose for Stage 2.

Analysis of Stage 1 participants on low dose showed an improvement from the baseline of 56% reduction after eight weeks treatment.

The low dose cohort also outperformed the placebo group by approximately 20% over the eight weeks of randomisation.

Anatara believes today’s results are encouraging enough to explore the possibility of a registration of GaRP in Australia and other jurisdictions as a clinically validated IBS treatment.

The company also anticipates strong commercial interest in these interim results, given the clear unmet need for non-prescription products to relieve and modify gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS.

The global digestives and intestinal treatments market amounts to US$18.64bn in 2023.

The Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the trial has now recommended that the trial should continue to Stage 2 using the low dose.

Noxopharm’s CRO-67 to take spotlight at conference

Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) announced that further encouraging data from its Chroma platform has been presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer.

The latest in vivo research results from the company’s CRO-67 drug candidate are being showcased by Noxopharm’s long-term collaborator, UNSW Sydney, as an oral and poster presentation at the prestigious conference currently taking place in Boston.

Noxopharm says CRO-67 targets pancreatic cancer in a different and innovative way.

The disease is especially difficult to treat because the tumours are surrounded by a dense barrier of cells that protects them from anti-cancer drugs, as well as from the body’s immune system.

In addition, pancreatic cancer typically shows a large diversity of genetic variations between individual patients, intensifying the challenge of developing drugs that work across as many different varieties as possible.

This research follows work conducted in 2022 which showed that CRO-67 killed tumour cells as well as barrier cells in samples taken from patients who had their tumours surgically removed.