Pharmaceutical Business review

Exelixis anticancer drug proves well tolerated in early trial

To date, 31 patients have been treated across eight dose levels and are available for safety analysis. In the trial, XL647 was generally well tolerated with fatigue, nausea and diarrhea, which were mild to moderate and transient, the most commonly reported adverse events.

“The favorable safety profile to date, long-half life and tumor effects observed following treatment with XL647 are encouraging, and suggest that effective and tolerable dosing regimens may be feasible with this novel compound,” said Dr Heather Wakelee, instructor of medicine at Stanford University.

Dr Wakelee presented the results of the trial at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

In a broad array of preclinical tumor models including breast, lung, colon and prostate cancer, XL647 has demonstrated potent inhibition of tumor growth and the ability to cause tumor regression.