BNC210 anxiety drug compound less-addictive, says Bionomics

BNC210, an anxiety drug compound being developed by Bionomics, has been found superior to several existing anti-anxiety, stress drugs and less addictive in clinical studies.

BNC210 preclinical research has demonstrated the experimental 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, Bionomics said in a press release.

BNC210, is effective in models of stress-induced anxiety and depression.
that 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 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”, stated CEO and Managing Director of Bionomics, Dr Deborah Rathjen.

BNC210 continues to perform well in preclinical testing, said Dr Deborah Rathjen.

Bionomics Limited  will present new data at the 2009 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois is the world’s largest annual gathering of neuroscientists, psychiatrists, neurologists and psychologists and the aim of the meeting is to advance the understanding of the brain and the nervous system and to facilitate the development of improved disease treatments and cures.

Anxiety is a common debilitating condition that is estimated to affect up to 40 million people in the US alone, with a worldwide market value of up to US$15 billion.

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 dependence.

Studies performed with BNC210 in rodents demonstrate no sign of dependency following interruption of treatment in rats dosed repeatedly with BNC210 for a period of 14 days.

Discontinuation of BNC210 treatment does not produce any symptoms of physical dependence.

Current treatments suffer from many side effects including sedation, memory loss and addiction. Others are unsatisfactory for patients due to slow onset of action (weeks), or sexual dysfunction side-effects.

BNC210 has shown antidepressant activity in a rat model of depression following both acute treatment and daily dosing for 14 days, in addition.

Repeat dosing with BNC210 resulted in increased potency. This effect is also seen with marketed anti-depressants, where repeat dosing produces enhanced therapeutic benefit.

BNC210offers dramatic competitive advantages over existing treatments. BNC210 has a rapid onset of action and is suitable for oral dosing.

BNC210 appears to act by a completely novel mechanism of action distinct from known drugs and may therefore represent the first in a new class of novel anxiety drugs offering dramatically improved patient benefits.

In June 2009, Bionomics initiated Phase 1 human clinical studies of BNC210 in healthy volunteers under the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Clinical Trial Notification (CTN) scheme.

Based in Adelaide, Australia, Bionomics is a cancer and central nervous system drug developer. Bionomics has small molecule product development programs in the areas of cancer, anxiety, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.

Bionomics’ most advanced program, BNC105 for the treatment of cancer, is based upon the identification of a novel compound that potently and selectively restricts blood flow within tumours.

Bionomics’ discovery and development activities are driven by its three technology platforms: Angene, the company’s angiogenesis target and drug discovery platform, incorporates a variety of genomics tools to identify and validate novel angiogenesis targets. MultiCore is Bionomics’ proprietary, diversity orientated chemistry platform for the discovery of small molecule drugs.ionX is a set of novel technologies for the identification of drugs targeting ion channels for diseases of the central nervous system.
Annual sales of treatments for anxiety and related conditions are approximately US$12 billion.