N4 Pharma upbeat on recent Nuvec developments

The AIM-traded firm said that in collaboration with the University of Queensland, it was exploring the potential of Nuvec as an oral delivery system for oligonucleotides, encompassing DNA and RNA.

Recent experiments yielded promising results, affirming the feasibility of orally administering Nuvec loaded with a DNA plasmid for ovalbumin in vivo.

The administration of Nuvec took place through an enteric-coated capsule, enabling the release of its contents in the intestinal lumen.

Subsequently, intestinal cells successfully took up the material, resulting in successful transfection and the release of newly synthesised ovalbumin.

The company said the initial experiment replicated a previous study conducted earlier in the year.

In the experiment, an enterically-coated capsule containing Nuvec loaded with a DNA plasmid for ovalbumin was administered, and protein expression was observed three days later.

However, an additional second capsule was administered on day three in the recent experiment, leading to a substantially higher peak expression level between days four and seven.

"This continued success shows that Nuvec® has the potential to be successfully used as an oral delivery system with many potential applications such as a vaccine, a product for irritable bowel disease or to treat colonic cancer among many possible examples," said chief executive officer Nigel Theobald.

"Given the complexities involved in oral delivery, this early success with Nuvec represents a potentially massive opportunity and point of difference for Nuvec and its use as a delivery system to target multiple diseases.

"With this new data, we are in the process of scoping out the next phase of work to accumulate sufficient data to enable us to focus on a specific oral application and further news on this will be announced in the new year, and we expect to make advancing Nuvec's use as an oral delivery technology a key priority for 2024.

"In the meantime, the University of Queensland will continue its work exploring the use of Nuvec as an oral delivery system for vaccines as part of our Australian Research Council funded grant with them."

At 1033 GMT, shares in N4 Pharma were up 16.13% at 0.9p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.