and cancer therapy type public industry biotechnology headquarters emeryville ca united states key people isaac cohen founder and ceo mary tagliaferri founder president and cmo number of employees 8 1 website http www.bionovo.com bionovo nasdaq bnvi.ob was an american biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of botanically derived treatments for women s health and cancer based in emeryville california . the company had two drug candidates in u.s. food and drug administration fda clinical trials menerba formerly known as mf101 a selective estrogen receptor beta agonist for hot flashes associated with menopause and bezielle formerly bzl101 for advanced breast cancer . the company has ceased activity and its stock although still listed not moved from 0 00 usd since the end of 2012 . 2 no statement has been made by the management nor any indication has been given that the company is still active . the last press statement was about the sell of all the technical equipment and lay off of 90 % of the staff . in short words the company is as good as bankrupted and shut down although the management never officially admitted it . 3 contents 1 discovery and development platform 2 drug pipeline 2.1 menerba 2.2 bezielle 2.3 early stage drug candidates 3 references 4 external links discovery and development platform edit bionovo used traditional chinese medicine tcm as its discovery engine isolating purifying and testing potent active ingredients from herbs and other botanicals then formulating them into products which can be packaged as powders or pills for easy use by patients . the company identified the active chemical components underpinning the mechanism of action for all of their lead drug candidates 4 5 and in some cases has developed synthetic methods of production . they are developing their drugs in accordance with the u.s. fda s botanical drug guidelines . 6 drug pipeline edit bionovo s drug pipeline had two drug candidates in clinical trials and several additional candidates positioned to enter clinical trials upon the receipt of funding or partnership . menerba edit bionovo s lead drug candidate menerba formerly known as mf101 is a novel selective estrogen receptor beta er agonist designed to treat vasomotor symptoms hot flashes associated with menopause . 7 although menerba is a selective estrogen receptor modulator serm it is distinct from the other fda approved serms such as tamoxifen and raloxifene since these drugs have mixed agonist antagonist activity and are not selective in transcriptional regulation to one of the two known estrogen receptor subtypes . menerba completed its phase ii clinical trial showing the drug to be safe clinically efficacious and well tolerated . 8 the drug will begin its phase iii clinical trial pending fda approval . 9 bezielle edit bezielle also called bzl101 is an oral drug designed for the treatment of advanced breast cancer . the drug is derived from the herb scutellaria barbata which is used in traditional chinese medicine to treat cancer . 10 bezielle is selectively cytotoxic to most of twelve breast cancer cell lines examined 5 as well as to a number of cancer cell lines of different tissue origins such as prostate lung colon ovarian and pancreatic cancers . 5 11 bezielle s mechanism of action targets diseased cells while leaving normal cells healthy and intact by inhibiting glycolysis production . normal cells depend primarily on the citric acid cycle 85 % and very little on glycolysis 7 % for energy production . in contrast cancer cells depend largely on glycolysis 85 % for energy production . 12 bezielle induces strong oxidative stress in cancer cells leading to severe dna damage but in normal cells the effect is blunted due to their different metabolic profile . cancer cells attempt but ultimately fail to repair dna damage that results in the inhibition of glycolysis and cancer cell death while normal cells remain unharmed . 5 bezielle has completed phase 1a 12 and 1b 13 clinical trials for advanced metastatic breast cancer . 14 early stage drug candidates edit seala also known as vg101 for vaginal atrophy was approved by the fda to begin a phase i ii clinical trial 15 upon receipt of funding . bn107 and bn108 both designed to treat advanced breast cancer are slated to begin phase i ii clinical trials upon funding . 16 17 bezielle was scheduled to begin a phase i ii clinical trial for the treatment of pancreatic cancer upon funding . 18 references edit source . biz journals . retrieved 24 july 2012 . yahoo finance bizjournal.com mar 13 2012 cvoro a. ; paruthiyil s. ; jones j. o. ; tzagarakis foster c. ; clegg n. j. ; tatomer d. ; medina r. t. ; tagliaferri m. ; et al. 2006 . selective activation of estrogen receptor transcriptional pathways by an herbal extract . endocrinology . 148 2 538 547 . doi 10.1210 en .2006 0803 . pmid 17095596 . a b c d fong s shoemaker m cadaoas j et al. april 2008 . molecular mechanisms underlying selective cytotoxic activity of bzl101 an extract of scutellaria barbata towards breast cancer cells . cancer biology & therapy . 7 4 577 86 . doi 10.4161 cbt .7.4.5535 . pmid 18305410 . coombs amy may 30 2008 . fda lets botanicals grow into a new sector . san francisco business times . grady d sawaya gf johnson kc et al. 2009 . mf101 a selective estrogen receptor beta modulator for the treatment of menopausal hot flushes a phase ii clinical trial . menopause . 16 3 458 65 . doi 10.1097 gme .0 b013e31818e64dd . pmid 19182698 . bionovo s mf101 shows positive safety tolerability and efficacy in phase ii trial . rxtrials institute drug pipeline alert . 5 110 . june 5 2007 . bionovo announces development plans for menopausal hot flash drug candidate menerba mf101 following fda meetings press release . bionovo . december 4 2008 . retrieved july 27 2010 . can ancient herbs treat cancer time 15 october 2007 . herba scutellaria barbata code c2661 national cancer institute thesaurus . a b rugo h shtivelman e perez a et al. september 2007 . phase i trial and antitumor effects of bzl101 for patients with advanced breast cancer . breast cancer research and treatment . 105 1 17 28 . doi 10.1007 s10549 006 9430 6 . pmid 17111207 . perez alejandra t. ; arun banu ; tripathy debu ; tagliaferri mary a. ; shaw heather s. ; kimmick gretchen g. ; cohen isaac ; shtivelman emma ; et al. 2010 . a phase 1b dose escalation trial of scutellaria barbata bzl101 for patients with metastatic breast cancer . breast cancer research and treatment . 120 1 111 8 . doi 10.1007 s10549 009 0678 5 . pmid 20054647 . press release bionovo announces publication of positive results from the phase 1b clinical trial of bezielle bzl101 for metastatic breast cancer 24 january 2010 . vg101 phase i ii to treat vulvar and vaginal atrophy in post menopausal women press release bionovo to present recent findings of bn107 its anticancer agent at the 31st annual san antonio breast cancer symposium 12 december 2008 . press release bionovo announces 2008 highlights and year end financial results 12 march 2009 . bionovo s promising pipeline targets large potential markets seeking alpha 18 june 2007 . external links edit official bionovo website 1 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bionovo & oldid 729086326 categories menopauseoncologycompanies based in emeryville california navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 july 2016 at 19 58 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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