Novogen teams up with Yale University to investigate ovarian cancer drug delivery

Australian biotech company Novogen (ASX: NRT) has announced a joint venture with Yale University in the USA dedicated to developing personalized approaches to chemotherapy to fight ovarian cancer.

The joint venture will be known as CanTx. Novogen will own 85% of the new company and its chief executive Graham Kelly will be CEO of the new joint venture. The CanTx board will be comprised of directors representing both Novogen and Yale. Under this joint venture arrangement, Novogen retains full ownership of its drug technology intellectual property and will grant CanTx access to that intellectuaI property (IP) for drug development purposes. Novogen will continue to explore applications of the same technology platform in a range of other clinical indications including glioblastoma, along with its anti-tropomyosin drug technology in the areas of prostate cancer, melanoma and neuroblastoma.

CanTx will assume responsibility for advancing Novogen's super-benzopyran drug technology into the clinic for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Its first development candidate, designed to seek out cancer cells and deliver a Novogen drug that has been shown to be highly cytotoxic against ovarian cancer cells including ovarian cancer stem cells, is expected to enter clinical studies in 2014. The investigational product will be administered intra-peritoneal to women with ovarian cancer.