New drug development company, Senhwa Biosciences’ clinical partner - Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, PMCC, Australia was invited and held poster presentation of phase I result of CX-5461 in the treatment of Hematological Cancer at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting on 11th December. Among the 16 evaluable patients, one patient underwent partial response (PR) after the CX-5461 treatment and stayed in the trial for one year. Five patients had stable disease (SD). In the phase I trial, CX-5461 showed excellent therapeutic potential. Senhwa and PMCC plan to continue the next phase of clinical trial and will focus on multiple myeloma (MM) cancer.
Multiple myeloma is a malignant disease in which plasma cells are abnormally proliferated. The vast majority will secrete monoclonal immunoglobulin (M-protein), the biomarker. The results of the phase I study showed that CX- 5461 significantly reduced the amount of M-protein. Fifty percent of the multiple myeloma patients were controlled as SD and they were resistant to other therapies. The current treatment options for multiple myeloma include radiotherapy and chemotherapy; targeted drugs or stem cell transplantation, but there is no complete cure option.
There are more than 30,000 new cases of multiple myeloma per year in the United States. The global drug market for multiple myeloma is expected to reach US$ 37.5 billion by 2024, according to the forecast of the GVR (grand view research), a leading market research firm. If the result of next phase of trial is optimistic, Senhwa CX-5461 will have the opportunity to compete for this huge market.
In addition to the completion of phase I trial of hematological malignancies, phase I / II clinical trial of CX-5461 in breast cancer are currently underway in Canada and expected to complete by end of 2018.