Singapore: Australian biotech firm Novogen has made a breakthrough in the development of its anticancer candidate TRXE-009. The company said that in initial animal studies, the drug has been found to be potent against brain cancers, delivering therapy across the difficult blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier stops 98 per cent of drugs used in humans from reaching the brain and protects the brain from the unwanted toxic effects of drugs and food chemicals. Thus patients with brain cancers have poor survival prospects as no drugs can be used to treat them.

Dr Graham Kelly, CEO, Novogen, said, "TRXE-009 in our view represents an exciting drug prospect and a breakthrough in the search for an avenue of treatment for the large unmet clinical need of both primary and secondary brain cancer."

Dr Kelly further mentioned,"TRXE-009 is already on its way into the clinic early next year in the form of Trilexium, a proprietary dosage form of TRXE-009 utilizing the compound's potent general anti-cancer activity. What marks this agent as particularly exciting is its particular ability to kill the full range of cells within a tumor, including the tumor-initiating or cancer stem cells. Cancers such as malignant melanoma and metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer are in our sights."