CLL drug achieves ‘unprecedented’ remissions
pharmafile | December 9, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | AbbVie, CML, Genentech, abt-199
AbbVie and Genentech’s investigational oncology drug ABT-199 has performed well in a Phase I trial for blood cancer, according to reports.
Reuters says the drug controlled or eliminated signs of the disease in more than four-fifths of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) who had received no benefit from previous therapies.
The selective inhibitor of B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) proteins blocks the function of the BCL-2 protein by restoring the communication system that tells cancer cells to self-destruct.
Dr John Seymour, a researcher at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, is due to present data from the trial tomorrow at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in New Orleans.
He will say that 84% of 67 patients who took the drug showed at least a 50% reduction in signs of the disease – with 23% achieving complete remission.
“To achieve that magnitude of complete remission is extraordinarily promising and unprecedented in this particular type of leukaemia, among patients with otherwise resistant disease,” Seymour told Reuters.
The companies are pioneering BCL-2 research with ABT-199, currently in Phase I/Ib trials.
The FDA this year accepted AbbVie’s amended clinical trial protocols for studies of ABT-199 in patients with CLL and enrolment for trials in CLL, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma was reinstated.
AbbVie and Genentech have said they expect to move ABT-199 into “later-stage clinical trials in the near future”.
In Seymour’s ongoing study, 72% of patients are still on the drug and are well at or beyond 12 months of treatment – but he acknowledged that it is early days.
“For decades BCL-2 has been a sought-after target, but up until now no other drugs have had the potency and precision of ABT-199,” he told Reuters.
Since BCL-2 drives other cancers – such as lung, prostate and breast – ABT-199 could unlock a door that has previously been closed.
“This compound has that potential, but we’re still at the very early stages of testing it,” Seymour concluded. “We’re crawling, but we’re looking forward to where we may be running in the future.”
Adam Hill
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