Roger Aston

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has successfully reformulated its promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. Perth-based PharmAust says the new form of Monepantel, which now takes the form of dry tablets, improves the drug’s taste and meets dosage requirements, paving the way for trials in dogs expected to take place by the end of the year ahead of human clinical trials.

Perth-based Epichem, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has received a contract extension with a leading US biotechnology company, Unity Biotechnology. The new contract, worth around US$1.65 million out to 2020, means Epichem will continue to provide synthetic and medicinal chemistry expertise to support Unity’s drug discovery projects.

ASX listed biotech PharmAust now has sufficient data from testing of different tablet prototypes of its flagship Monepantel anti-cancer drug to take the best performing and most economical tablet for GMP manufacturing. The selected tablets will be used in formal dose escalation studies in healthy Beagle dogs to determine the maximum dose that can be given and with what safety margin.

ASX listed Biotech upstart PharmAust says that its ongoing clinical research in Melbourne is demonstrating that its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel’s principle end-product, metabolite Monepantel Sulfone, retains the same biological activity as the drug itself. The metabolite shows little side effects upon healthy, non-cancerous cells and works together with Monepantel, producing a “double kick” in eliminating cancer cells. Reduced dosing treatments are envisaged for upcoming canine and human trials.

PharmAust has received new data from Canada’s BRI Biopharmaceutical Research that a specific combination of diet and excipient could double the amount of its Monepantel anti-cancer drug that can be delivered into the bloodstream of dogs. This could increase the flexibility for dosing schedules of Monepantel and potentially simplify the treatment of canine cancers.

PharmAust’s wholly owned synthetic and medicinal chemistry subsidiary, Epichem, is set to further improve its bottom line after paying off the $750,000 loan from Export Finance Australia taken out to help finance the construction of a state-of-the-art laboratory in 2015. This laboratory fuelled growth over the period from 2015 to 2018, with revenues increasing 38% to $3 million in the 2018 financial year.

Epichem, a subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech, PharmAust, has been rewarded for its contribution to WA and nominated as the year’s winner of the prestigious WA Industry and Export Awards. The company was acknowledged for its contributions to the global health and biotechnology sector by providing “end-to-end” support in drug discovery, with CEO, Dr Martine Keenan, also recognised with the Women in International Business Award at the same ceremony.

ASX-listed PharmAust’s fully-owned subsidiary, Epichem, has appointed experienced pharmaceutical and healthcare executive, Colin La Galia, as its new CEO and he will replace Dr Martine Keenan, who will step down from the role to resume her former position as Epichem Head of Drug Discovery and join the company’s board. Epichem is a successful contract medicinal chemistry company that is forecasting $4.2m revenues for the current financial year.

ASX listed biotech, PharmAust, has been awarded a one-year extension to its contract with not for profit organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, which commemorates the 12th-year of association between the two parties. Under the contract, which is expected to bring in $1.24m in revenue, PharmAust’s subsidiary, Epichem, will provide synthetic and medicinal chemistry services focused on developing new treatments for neglected diseases.

ASX-listed PharmAust’s innovative biotechnology work via its wholly owned subsidiaries Epichem and Pitney Pharmaceuticals has been recognised by the Australian Tax Office with the company receiving more than $700,000 in a research and development tax rebate. The funds will be used to advance its clinical trial programs in dogs and humans with the company now on a fast tracked pathway to prove up the cancer fighting abilities of its “re-purposed” Monepantel drug.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited will shortly commence laboratory testing of the effects of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel on the Coronavirus after entering into an agreement with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Victoria. The study will be overseen by the Institute’s award-winning, chronic infections researcher, Professor Marc Pellegrini, with feedback expected as early as May this year.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited has chalked up a remarkable success with its rapidly developing “Monepantel” anti-cancer drug after its latest trial on man’s best friend showed a significant turnaround in the health of dogs suffering from naïve B cell lymphoma. One dog achieved greater than 60 per cent reduction in tumour burden, with one of its tumours regressing completely.

ASX-listed PharmAust Limited has shown that the initial successful testing of its cancer fighting drug, Monepantel, against the COVID-19 virus may not have been a fluke, with new testing showing a “remarkable” 95% suppression rate in the infectivity of the SARS-CoV- 2 virus (COVID-19) in laboratory tests by both Monepantel and Monepantel sulfone. Testing was undertaken at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.

PharmAust’s cancer fighting drugs continue to inhibit COVID-19 in its testing of the effects of the drugs on cultured cells infected by the virus. Preliminary results from lab studies undertaken for PharmAust by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne show the virus can be suppressed by up to about 95 per cent following treatment with the company’s monepantel and monepantel sulfone products.

ASX-listed clinical-stage oncology group, PharmAust, continues to show that its cancer fighting drugs, Monepantel and Monepantel Sulfone, can have a positive, anti-viral effect on cultured cells that are infected with the Coronavirus. According to the Perth-based company, a second repeat of its in-vitro anti-viral confirmatory testing successfully demonstrated the anti-COVID-19 activity of both Monepantel and Monepantel Sulfone.

ASX-listed clinical-stage oncology group, PharmAust, has taken the next significant step towards establishing whether its cancer fighting drug, Monepantel, can also inhibit COVID-19. The Perth-based company has struck an agreement with an internationally renowned biomedical research university in the Netherlands that will examine the suitability of Monepantel and Monepantel Sulfone for the all-important preclinical ex-vivo stage of testing that precedes the critical clinical trials.

ASX-listed PharmAust continues to receive positive news from the ongoing Phase IIb trial of its “Monepantel” anti-cancer drug trial on dogs. The clinical-stage oncology company said the interim analysis of its drug trial provided further supportive evidence of the blood plasma levels of the Monepantel drug required to suppress B-cell lymphoma growth in pet owner’s dogs.