MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Geron Corporation today announced the presentation of the first clinical trial data for its telomerase inhibitor cancer drug, GRN163L, at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR International Conference on “Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics” in Prague.
Presented by Laurence Elias, M.D., Geron’s vice president, oncology clinical development, the data demonstrate the safety, tolerability and predicted pharmacokinetics in low-dose cohorts from a Phase I/II trial in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and a Phase I trial in patients with solid tumors.
“The early clinical data are very encouraging,” said Alan Colowick, M.D., Geron’s president, oncology. “This is the first time telomerase inhibition has been tested in cancer patients. The excellent tolerability and pharmacokinetics observed so far enable us to advance to the therapeutic dose cohorts, where we hope to demonstrate safe, sustained telomerase inhibition in the targeted tumor cells.”
WHAT IS TELOMERASE?
The therapeutic target, telomerase, is in all cells. It is an enzyme that adds back G rich sections at the end of the chromosome that did not fully replicate during mitosis. Telomerase then comes in and fills in the gaps. Normally, cells lose a bit of these G rich sections every time the cell duplicates. When it gets to some point of shortness, the cell recognizes this, stops growing and dies. In cancer cells it is thought that telomerase is very active and extends the life of the cell, and with other events, eventually becomes a cancer. It's long been a drug target.
Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) closed trading today up 20 cents or 2.38%.
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