Ariad Pharmaceuticals new experimental drug for leukemia succeeded in eliminating the cancer from the bone marrow of close to 50% of the patients who had a chronic type of the blood disease and had stopped responding to other medications.
The drug, Ponatinib, was used in the study that involved 444 patients of which 267 had chronic myeloid leukemia that was treated previously by older types of medications. It showed that 56% of the patients with the chronic leukemia achieved the goal of the study, meaning the disease nearly disappeared from their bone marrow.
Interim results were submitted earlier this year by Ariad from the trial. In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to have an expedited review. By March 27, the FDA is scheduled to decide whether to approve the experimental drug.
Ponatinib has been designed to target tyrosine kinase that is abnormal and is closely associated with two types of leukemia.
Ariad has also been testing the medication in patients that have been recently diagnoses with chronic myeloid leukemia. Final results of that trial are due to be released near the end of 2014, with an interim analysis occurring after 50% of patients have enrolled.
Close to 5,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed each year with CML and about half of them become resistant to the treatments used, says Ariad.
