Mozobil is the same CXCR4 inhibitor that was used in AIDS trials, right, except at a lower dose? In stem cell mobilization, they only dose once at 240uG. Even much higher doses didn't help reduce viral load in HIV patients much, and so development for AIDS was dropped due chiefly to that & arrhythmias. This hasn't been tried in humans in cancer yet, so far as I can tell. I can't find what dosing regimen they might want to use. I got the impression that in HIV, the adverse events depended somewhat on the method of administration. In any case, I now wonder if Mozobil or other CXCR4 inhibitors can really be given at doses that would be effective against cancer. All sorts of research points to its role in cancer, but hey, it's a chemokine, it's important for a lot of things. Apparently there are no mutated forms in healthy humans, suggesting that inhibiting it may be a bad idea. The mice seem to do OK, though.
It certainly fits for the MM franchise for MLNM, but I wonder if they'll get much out of it aside from the stem cell mobilization. Even if they do, there's a potential IP fight. Northwest Biotherapeutics has a patent for CXCR4 antagonism in cancer, though I don't know if it's as solid as it is broad, haven't looked. There's another little company fiddling with it in some kind of rare sarcoma.
You know more about AnorMED than any of us, what are your thoughts concerning the odds of getting expanded indications for Mozobil?
Cheers, Tuck |
