Cell Therapeutics' Pixantrone Phase III (EXTEND) Pivotal Trial Successful in Achieving Primary Endpoint
Tuesday November 11, 1:30 am ET
Complete Remission / Unconfirmed Complete Remission Rate 3.5 Fold Higher Compared to Standard Chemotherapy
SEATTLE, Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) (Nasdaq and MTA: CTIC) announced today that it achieved the primary efficacy endpoint of its phase III EXTEND (PIX301) trial of pixantrone (BBR2778) for patients with advanced, relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) based on a preliminary intent to treat efficacy analysis. Patients randomized to treatment with pixantrone achieved a high rate of confirmed and unconfirmed complete remissions compared to patients treated with standard chemotherapy (14/70 (20.0%) for pixantrone arm compared to 4/70 (5.7%) for the standard chemotherapy arm, p = 0.02). No patient (0%) in the standard chemotherapy arm achieved a confirmed complete remission compared to 8/70 (11%) of pixantrone recipients. Pixantrone treatment also significantly increased the overall response rate (CR/uCR+PR) with (26/70 (37.1%) for pixantrone arm compared to 10/70 (14.3%) for the control arm, p = 0.003). CR/uCR and ORR were determined by an independent assessment panel that was blinded to the treatment assignments. The most common serious toxicities (>5%) seen in previous trials of pixantrone include grade 3 and 4 neutropenia and febrile neutropenia. Complete safety information is not yet available for the study, however, the study was monitored on an ongoing basis by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee and no serious concerns were raised. Seventy-four percent of patients discontinued therapy for disease progression or death, the majority of which were in the standard chemotherapy control arm.
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CTI plans to submit complete study data for presentation at a major scientific conference. CTI also intends to request a pre-NDA meeting with the FDA and expects to begin submission of a rolling New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA in early 2009.
"This positive phase III study is validation of Cell Therapeutics Inc.'s capabilities in acquiring attractive drug candidates, and designing and implementing a successful phase III trial," said James A. Bianco, M.D., CEO of Cell Therapeutics. "These data are consistent with the extensive experience with pixantrone in our phase I and phase II studies and demonstrate the ability to offer patients with advanced, relapsed NHL the potential to obtain a clinically meaningful response like a complete remission, despite having failed multiple other courses of chemotherapy or immuno-chemotherapy."
The EXTEND clinical trial is a phase III single-agent trial of pixantrone for patients with relapsed, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who received two or more prior therapies and who were sensitive to treatment with anthracyclines. The trial was conducted at 130 sites in 17 countries. The trial enrolled 140 patients and patients were randomized to receive either pixantrone or another single-agent drug currently used for the treatment of this patient population and selected by the physician. The trial was designed to examine the complete remission (CR) or unconfirmed complete remission (uCR) rate, overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The study received Special Protocol Assessment approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2004 and pixantrone has received fast track designation for this indication.
CTI intends to further evaluate additional details of the study and will provide complete safety and progression-free survival information comparing treatment assignments which is currently being assembled for analysis.
Cell Therapeutics will be presenting at the Rodman & Renshaw Healthcare Conference on November 11, 2008 at 10:45 am Eastern time and a webcast will be available at celltherapeutics.com.
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Enrollment was suppose to be n=320. I don't see a SPA on their 10K. Response was primary. Tox was secondary. No data on PFS in this release. NVS has option for drug (If.... Novartis would pay CTI a $7.5 million license fee, up to $104 million in registration and sales related milestones and a royalty on pixantrone worldwide net sales as well as reimbursement for certain expenses.). A whole $7.5m. :) |
