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news.Geron has presented encouraging clinical trial data for its telomerase inhibitor cancer drug, GRN163L.
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The data demonstrated the safety, tolerability and predicted pharmacokinetics in low-dose cohorts from a phase I/II trial in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and a phase I trial in patients with solid tumors.
“This is the first time telomerase inhibition has been tested in cancer patients. The excellent tolerability and pharmacokinetics observed so far enable us to advance to the therapeutic dose cohorts, where we hope to demonstrate safe, sustained telomerase inhibition in the targeted tumor cells,” said Alan Colowick, Geron’s president, oncology.
Telomerase is a broadly applicable and critical tumor target. It is expressed in a broad array of malignant tumors, essential for malignant cell growth and absent or expressed transiently at low levels in most normal adult tissues.
GRN163L has been demonstrated to have anti-tumor effects in a wide range of hematological and solid tumor models and appears to be unique in its observed effects on tumor stem cells: the rare, chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells that cause cancer recurrence.