Celltech's CMA 676 Set To Move Into Efficacy Testing

Celltech reported positive results from an ascending-dose study of CMA 676 in patients with refractory acute myeloid leukemia at the American Society of Hypertension in Orlando last week, and said that it would be conducting further trials next year with a view to gaining accelerated approval for the product.

CMA 676 consists of a cytotoxic drug, calicheamicin, coupled to a human antibody targeting the CD33 antigen, which is commonly present on AML tumor cells, as well as some other malignancies, eg chronic myelogenous leukemia in blastic phase.

Dose-Ranging Study A total of 36 patients who had relapsed or refractory AML and had generally failed several prior therapies, in some cases bone marrow transplants, were enrolled into the study. The data were presented at ASH by Irwin Bernstein of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who noted that the data have also been submitted for presentation at 1997's American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.