ASX Health Stocks: Neurotech says its cannabis strain works well when combined with Diclofenac

Neurotech says its cannabis strain NTI164 demonstrates strong results when combined with Diclofenac
Memphasys prepares for a pre-submission meeting with the US FDA for its sperm separation tech, the Felix System

Neurotech reports positive results for lead asset program

Neurotech International (ASX:NTI) has today reported significant development in the preclinical research of its lead asset program, NTI164.

NTI164 is a proprietary cannabis strain that contains high levels of unique minor cannabinoids and less than 0.3% THC, exclusively licensed from Dolce Cann Global.

Preclinical studies conducted in human neuronal cells have demonstrated that NTI164, when combined with Diclofenac (the pharma ingredient found in Voltaren), significantly reduced and normalised the levels of key inflammatory biomarkers.

These key biomarkers/cytokines are associated with the onset and development of multiple neuro-inflammatory disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Diclofenac, when used alone, had a significantly lesser effect on these markers.

But when combined with NTI164, Diclofenac’s effect was significantly enhanced, showing a 93% reduction in the expression of TNF-alpha, 80% reduction in the expression of IL-6, as well as 38%-66% reduction in other key biomarkers.

Neurotech has previously released preclinical results regarding combination of NTI164 and the corticosteroid, Prednisone, with similar significantly positive results.

“The potential to create combination treatments with NTI164 plus Diclofenac or Prednisone that increases efficacy and significantly reduces side effects is now a major driver for the company,” said chairman of Neurotech, Brian Leedman.

“Given the impending release of our final ASD study results, the company is well and truly positioned for an extremely busy second half to the year as we move to secure strategic partners and undertake further clinical trials given our results to date.”

Neurotech share price today:

Memphasys prepares for FDA submission

Reproductive biotech company, Memphasys (ASX: MEM), has today provided an update in relation to the commercialisation of the company’s Felix System.

The company says that IVF Clinic key opinion leader (KOL) sites that have been conducting in-vitro assessments of the Felix System over the last 12 months have now completed those assessments.

Initial results showed that while both the Felix System and DGC (the most globally common sperm preparation method for IVF procedures) were able to select sperm of high quality from the raw semen samples, the overall quality from the Felix System was superior to DGC in a vast majority of cases.

And although the yield of sperm from the Felix System was less than the yield from DGC, there were sufficient sperm prepared by the Felix System for IVF processes.

Notably, the Felix System processed semen samples in six minutes whilst DGC required at least 30 minutes, which could be an advantage especially in a busy IVF clinic.

Memphasys is now preparing for a pre-submission meeting with the US FDA.

Initial feedback from consultants was that as the Felix System will be classed as a novel class II device and as there is no predicate device, it is likely to require a de novo submission.

To Memphasys’ knowledge, there is no other sperm separation method currently in the global market offering the same combination of speed and quality of isolated sperm as the Felix System.