CollaGenex starts Ph II Kaposi's sarcoma trial

The AIDS Malignancy Consortium has opened enrollment in a Phase IIclinical trial to determine the efficacy of CollaGenex Pharmaceutical's chemically-modified tetracycline, Metastat (COL-3), which appears to have a dual mechanism of anti-tumor activity combined with the inhibition of several tissue destructive enzymes and the down-regulation of inflammatory cytokines, as a treatment for AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma, a disease for which there is currently no US Food and Drug Administration-approved oral treatment. A previous Phase I trial found that the drug, when administered orally once-daily, was well-tolerated and demonstrated an overall clinical response rate of 44%. During the Phase II trial, patients will be administered at two dose levels of Metastat with the aim of establishing the tumor response rate, as well as the response duration.