A New Breakthrough for cancer patients

Bionomics today announced that it has been granted a patent in New Zealand for a series of compounds that have shown promise as potential new treatments for cancer.Bionomics is currently developing the compounds as "vascular targeting agents" for the treatment of solid tumours. Vascular targeting agents act by starving tumors of the blood flow they require to grow.

Dr. Bernard Flynn, a co-inventor of the compounds and now VP of Chemistry of Bionomics, stated that, "This patent covers a range of structures that have demonstrated significant efficacy as anticancer agents. These compounds have resulted from application of our MultiCore chemistry platform to vascular targeting, a highly promising new area of anticancer drug discovery. This is a field of intense interest within the industry and our compounds offer the competitive advantages of exceptional potency and superior drug-likeness."

The granted patent was originally licensed to Iliad Chemicals Pty Ltd by the Australian National University and the U.S. Government. Iliad was acquired by Bionomics on 1 July 2005.

Significant progress in Bionomics anticancer program

In announcing the grant of the patent, Bionomics also reported that rapid progress in the vascular targeting agent program has resulted in the identification of six lead candidate compounds. Further testing will enable the selection of a nominated clinical candidate.

Bionomics anticipates that this further work will be completed in the first quarter of 2006. "Following the acquisition of Iliad, we have rolled out a comprehensive integration program to bring together Bionomics' Angene platform in cancer biology with the MultiCore chemistry technology. This effort has already borne fruit in the identification of several promising anticancer leads," stated Dr. Deborah Rathjen, CEO and Managing Director of Bionomics.

At the completion of the acquisition of Iliad Chemicals Pty Ltd earlier this year, a plan for further evaluating in excess of 90 active compounds was implemented. The execution of this plan has enabled Bionomics to select potent vascular targeting compounds with desirable drug-like properties to move forward, prior to commencement of manufacture of drug compound and formal toxicology which will support clinical development of the preferred anticancer vascular targeting compound. Each of the compounds currently under evaluation is proprietary to the Company with both composition of matter and use patent claims under examination.