IND For CTI's Novel Cancer Drug In 1995?

Cell Therapeutics Inc's president and chief executive, James Bianco, has announced that an Investigational New Drug application for the firm's novel anticancer agent CT-2584 is scheduled for first-quarter 1995. The agent is a broad-spectrum inhibitor of several phosphatidic acid species, intracellular secondary messengers for which the company has a proprietary position. The company's lead PA inhibitor, lisofylline, is due to start pivotal trials in second-quarter 1995 (Marketletter September 26).

Dr Bianco told the Marketletter that certain PA types play a major role in all the the following abnormal processes in cancer: local spread and metastasis through metalloproteinase production; angiogenesis; and expression of cell adhesion molecules. Furthermore, in vitro testing of CT-2584 has revealed that it is toxic to all the 50 cancer cell lines against which it has been tested, including lines that are expressing the multiple drug resistance phenotype.

Animal studies with the drug suggest that although it is effective in killing tumor cells and preventing metastasis, it is non-toxic to both resting or dividing normal cells. Chemotherapy-resistant tumor samples from patients with breast cancer are significantly more sensitive to CT-2584 than high concentrations of either Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol (paclitaxel) or cyclophosphamide, two drugs which are frequently used in the treatment of breast cancer patients.