BeyondSpring Clinical Data on Neutropenia Mitigation with Plinabulin to be Presented at 2016 ASH Annual Meeting
NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative immuno-oncology cancer therapies, announced today that the Company will present statistically significant data from its Phase 2 trial of its innovative lead asset, Plinabulin, for mitigating chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia with Docetaxel at this year's American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in San Diego during the poster session. Dr. Douglas Blayney, M.D., FACP, founding board member of NCCN Guidelines for Neutropenia management, Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University, and BeyondSpring's Principal Investigator for its registrational trial for Neutropenia, will present the findings.
Neutropenia is the destruction of a type of white blood cell (Neutrophil) that is a key component of the immune system Neutropenia is a common side effect of chemotherapy in cancer patients. Neutrophils are a patient's first line of defense against infections, and patients with grade 4 Neutropenia (an abnormally low concentration of Neutrophils in the blood) are more susceptible to severe bacterial infections and sepsis, which require hospitalization. Grade 4 Neutropenia is associated with a high mortality rate, between 9 and 18 percent. Furthermore, when grade 4 Neutropenia occurs, Docetaxel dosing has to be reduced or interrupted, causing patients to receive suboptimal chemotherapy.
"BeyondSpring's overarching goal is to change the treatment landscape in oncology by delivering innovative and cost-effective cancer therapeutics to patients," said Dr. Ramon Mohanlal, M.D., Ph.D., BeyondSpring Chief Medical Officer. "The current treatment options (G-CSF, its biosimilars or pegylated G-CSF) for the prevention of grade 4 Neutropenia are not only suboptimal, but largely unaffordable. Per product label, the earliest G-CSF and its analogues can be administered is 24 hours (next day) after chemotherapy, by which time a significant insult to Neutrophils has occurred. Whereas Plinabulin can be administered on the same day as (one hour after) chemotherapy. The phase 2 data shows that Plinabulin has a profound benefit in preventing Docetaxel-induced Neutropenia (p<0.0003) while demonstrating a favorable safety profile (much less bone pain vs G-CSF and its analogues). It also has the added benefit of having anticancer effects."
"We are making excellent progress as we complete these pivotal studies on the efficacy of the Plinabulin / Docetaxel combination in preventing Neutropenia during chemotherapy," added Dr. Lan Huang, Ph.D., BeyondSpring co-founder and CEO. "Plinabulin has the potential to be a more effective, safe, and convenient alternative to G-CSFs (including its biosimilars and pegylated G-CSF), while also being a more affordable solution to the benefit of cancer patients in need all over the world."
The 58th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition will take place on Dec. 3 through 6, 2016, and BeyondSpring's poster presentation will take place on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m. local time at the San Diego Convention Center, Hall GH. A full-text version of BeyondSpring's abstract appears on the ASH website here and will be published online in the Dec. 1 supplemental volume of Blood.
About BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals
BeyondSpring is a global clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative immuno-oncology cancer therapies with a robust pipeline from internal development and from collaboration with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington. BeyondSpring has advanced its lead asset, Plinabulin, into a Phase 3 clinical trial as a direct anticancer agent in non-small cell lung cancer. The Company is also planning a Phase 2/3 clinical trial for Plinabulin in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia. BeyondSpring's experienced management team brought a combined 30+ drugs to market.
About Plinabulin
Plinabulin is an innovative small molecule agent that has multiple mechanism of action, with immune enhancing mechanism, tumor vasculature targeting and activating JNK pathway to induce cancer cell apoptosis.
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SOURCE BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals
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