A University of South Carolina (USC)-licensed startup that has developed an intranasal drug delivery system for brain tumours marked a historic day as it listed for the first time on Nasdaq. The USC Stevens Center for Innovation and the startup, NeOnc Technologies, celebrated this milestone by ringing the opening bell on March 26.
Alongside this achievement, NeOnc announced a strategic partnership with CBCC Global Research, a premier full-service clinical research organisation (CRO), to expand clinical trials across 30 FDA-compliant sites in India, facilitating the advancement of its neuro-oncology treatment.
NeOnc is based on intellectual property developed by neurosurgeon and NeOnc founder Thomas Chen of Keck Medicine of USC, who is also a tenured professor of neurological surgery and pathology with Keck School of Medicine of USC. NeOnc is the first USC-licensed biotech company with agreements through USC Stevens to go public.
The promising cancer drug is just one example of the groundbreaking discoveries that research universities bring from the bench to a patient’s bedside through collaborations with biomedical and pharmaceutical companies.
USC holds an equity interest of less than 5% in the startup. Chen, who has been studying the potential treatment for more than a decade, is a shareholder and the founder of NeOnc.
NeOnc’s initial focus is on treating malignant gliomas with a proprietary drug called NEO100, an ultra-purified perillyl alcohol with cancer-fighting properties now in phase 2 clinical trial.
Researchers completed phase 1 clinical trials demonstrating safety and tolerance to NEO100 in 2019. For the phase 2 clinical studies now underway, NeOnc has 10 clinical sites recruiting patients and will soon add 30 FDA-compliant clinical research sites in India through its partnership with CBCC Global Research, increasing patient enrollment and accelerating global development efforts.
