Shares in drug company Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) climbed by around 4% this morning following the release of the company’s annual report.

Along with the numbers, NOX also detailed the ongoing clinical development of Veyonda (idronoxil) as an adjuvant therapy in chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the treatment of late-stage cancers.

Notably, at the beginning of the year, the company had a market cap of ~$39 million dollars and a share price of 18c – and by 30 June 2021, the market cap was ~$186 million with a share price finishing at 64c.

“The major outcome from the past financial year has been a glimpse into the uniqueness and substantial potential of our isoflavonoid technology platform,” CEO and managing director Dr Graham Kelly said.

“From data showing us having what we believe could be the most effective means of turning tumours from ‘cold’ to ‘hot’, to the LuPIN data showing a strong enhancing effect of radioligand therapy, to what appears to be a successful anti-inflammatory effect in COVID-19 patients, to discovering molecules with the potential to block growth signals driving aggressive growth of cancers of the brain and pancreas.”

Noxopharm is now progressing with its IONIC trial which has started to screen patients, and the DARRT-2 trial will be doing the same shortly and the CEP-2 (sarcoma) study is scheduled to open Q4 2021.

The company is also reviewing clinical strategies for a LuPIN-2 study and a Phase 2 NOXCOVID study as well as an anti-inflammatory drug discovery program underway with its subsidiary, Pharmorage.

“The 2020/2021 financial year was highly productive. The next financial year looks like being even more so,” Dr Kelly said.

 

Elsewhere in health Rhinomed (ASX:RNO) ripper higher after receiving an initial purchase order for 1 million Rhinoswabs from the Victorian Department of Health to support Victoria’s testing capability.

This follows the order last month for 1 million Rhinoswabs from NSW Health Pathology.

Rhinomed CEO Michael Johnson said the order was further validation of the Rhinoswab – which is more comfortable, easier to use than the standard nasal swabs, captures a larger sample and can reduce queues and wait times.

“The Rhinoswab can make a meaningful impact on the SARS-CoV-2 testing process and enable more people to be tested quickly and easily,” he said.

“With well over 2 billion SARS- CoV-2 tests having been carried out globally over the past 18 months (close to 26 million in Australia alone), there is a major opportunity for Rhinoswab to radically improve the testing process, clinical outcomes and user experience and we look forward to working with the Department of Health to deliver these outcomes.”

The order from Victoria represents around 35-35% of unaudited FY21 revenues of $3.9 million.

The company is planning to scale up its manufacturing capabilities to accommodate the growing domestic and international demand.

Rhinomed has appointed AntiMicrobial Technologies Group (AMTG) as a distributor of Rhinoswab in Western Australia and BioTrading Benelux BV as a distributor in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Rhinoswab is registered with the US FDA, the Australian TGA, and has a European CE mark.

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