Bionomics gets A$3.7 million grant for research on vascular disrupting agents to treat cancer

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, April 5 - Bionomics Ltd. said Wednesday that is has received a A$3.7 million Australian government "commercial ready" grant to take its anticancer drug into human clinical trials.

The grant will assist Bionomics in progressing its cancer drug program into phase 2 clinical trials, which the company said it expects to begin in 2007, according to a company news release.

"The Bionomics project, which targets the blood supply of solid tumors, has the potential to become a significant new weapon in the fight against cancer," Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said in the release.

The company said it has successfully commercialized three projects with previous grant support, including two epilepsy diagnostic tests that have been licensed to Laboratory Corp. of America and a series of novel drug targets for cancer that have been licensed to Danish company Genmab AB.

Bionomics is working on a novel type of drug called a vascular disruption agent that acts to rapidly shut down the supply of blood within a tumor. It starves the tumor of oxygen and nutrients needed to survive. It could be applied to many types of cancer, including colon, breast and lung cancers.

The company said vascular disruption agents have a market potential of more than $5 billion.

Bionomics is a Thebarton, Australia-based biotechnology company that develops innovative therapies for cancer and diseases of the central nervous system.

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