Cancer and central nervous system drug developer Bionomics (ASX: BNO) has reached another milestone in its development of anxiety drug compound BNC210.
Preclinical research has demonstrated that BNC210 reduced the anxiety levels of stressed rats to pre-stress or baseline levels.
This expansion of the anxiolytic profile of BNC210 confirms the potent activity of BNC210 and further supports its potential in the treatment of both acute and chronic anxiety disorders.
Importantly, the preclinical trials also demonstrated the superiority of Bionomic's BNC210, over blockbuster anxiety drugs like Valium and Prozac.
BNC210, showed none of the side-effects - common with Valium and Prozac: no sedation and no memory impairment. In addition, BNC210 was found to be faster acting with no drug-to-drug interaction side-effects.
One of the unwanted side effects seen with many drugs acting on the central nervous system, including those used to treat anxiety, is addiction and physical dependence.
In addition, BNC210 has shown antidepressant activity in a rat model of depression following both acute treatment and daily dosing for 14 days. Repeat dosing with BNC210 resulted in increased potency.
In a further sign of the growing stature and prospectivity of BNC210 to help patients with anxiety, evaluations performed with BNC210 in rodents demonstrated no sign of dependency following interruption of treatment in rats dosed repeatedly with BNC210 for a period of 14 days.
With an estimated world-wide market value of $15 billion, with 40 million anxiety sufferers in the US alone, the potential prize for Bionomics moving BNC210 to market is significant.
Managing director of Bionomics, Dr Deborah Rathjen said “this new data reinforces the superiority of BNC 210, as identified by our pre-clinical research, over blockbuster anxiety drugs many of which have major drawbacks or side-effects”.
The company will present the new data at the 2009 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, demonstrating that the company's antianxiety drug, BNC210, is effective in models of stress-induced anxiety and depression.
Rathjen said Dr Sue O’Connor, BNC210 Project Leader, and Dr Emile Andriambeloson, Head of Research at Neurofit, will present the research at the Meeting, supporting the clinical trial in Adelaide.
She said "we are delighted to have the opportunity to present these latest findings on our anxiety agent BNC210 at such a high calibre scientific meeting. BNC210 continues to perform well in preclinical testing and we are excited by its potential to help patients with anxiety and depression.