ChemGenex presents data on Ceflatonin for treating CML patients resistant to Gleevec

07-17-2006

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Limited (CXS and CXSP) announced the presentation of new clinical data supporting the use of Ceflatonin (homoharringtonine or HHT) as a treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients who have developed resistance to Gleevec or other tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

The data, presented at the European Hematology Association meeting held recently in Amsterdam, looked retrospectively at 15 patients with chronic or accelerated phase CML who had received HHT as salvage therapy in order to achieve a complete hematologic response following treatment failure of either imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), the currently approved first-line therapy, or interferon.

Of the 15 patients, 11 (73.3%) achieved a complete hematologic response after a median of two courses of HHT given in single or combination therapy. These responders included one patient with accelerated phase CML and five patients with bcr-abl point mutations, which can be associated with resistance to imatinib mesylate and other tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Only one of the six patients with a detected bcr-abl mutation in the study did not respond to HHT therapy. Nine of the patients experienced grade 4 hematologic toxicities, but there was no significant extra-hematologic toxicity reported.

"These results add to the growing body of clinical data that support the potential of HHT as a therapy for CML, especially in the increasing population of patients who have developed bcr-abl mutations associated with resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies," said Greg Collier, PhD, ChemGenex's managing director and chief executive officer.

"We have recently initiated a new multi-national phase 2/3 study evaluating the use of Ceflatonin in patients with chronic, accelerated and blast-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who have the T315I bcr-abl point mutation. Coupled with our recent successful capital raising of more than $15 million, we believe that we are well positioned to progress the clinical development of Ceflatonin to the stage of submission to global regulatory authorities for approval."

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Limited is a pharmaceutical development company dedicated to improving the lives of patients by developing therapeutics in the areas of oncology, diabetes, obesity, and depression. ChemGenex harnesses the power of genomics for target discovery and validation, and in clinical trials to develop more individualized therapeutic outcomes.

This article was prepared by Biotech Business Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2006, Biotech Business Week via NewsRx.com.