Strong Ph II NSCLC data on Agennix' talactoferrin

US biotechnology firm Agennix presented encouraging final results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II trial of talactoferrin alfa in non-small cell lung cancer at the 2008 Targeted Therapies for the Treatment of Lung Cancer meeting, held in Santa Monica, California. The study, which compared single-agent oral talactoferrin to placebo in patients with NSCLC who had failed previous chemotherapy, met its primary endpoint of improvement in overall survival, noted the privately-held firm.

Secondary efficacy endpoints also showed improvement consistent with the primary endpoint results. Oral talactoferrin was well tolerated in this patient population with fewer adverse events observed in the talactoferrin arm. "The improvement in overall survival seen with talactoferrin monotherapy in this Phase II study is exciting," said Jeffrey Crawford, chief of medical oncology, Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA. "Importantly, this effect was observed in a treatment-refractory patient population with few remaining therapeutic options, and talactoferrin was well tolerated with few adverse events," he added.