Aratana Therapeutics Announces Presentation of Clinical Data at Annual Veterinary Cancer Society Meeting

KANSAS CITY, Kan., Oct. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Aratana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PETX), a pet therapeutics company focused on licensing, developing and commercializing innovative biopharmaceutical products for companion animals, today announced its first appearance at the Annual Veterinary Cancer Society meeting this weekend in St. Louis, MO.  Investigators presented data on monoclonal antibody (MAb) oncology products in a series of presentations and a poster during the meeting.

Two oral presentations were made on the caninized MAb against CD20 for the treatment of canine B-cell lymphoma on Friday, October 10, 2014.  The first, titled, "Treatment of Canine B-Cell Lymphoma with Chemotherapy and a Canine Anti-CD20 Monoclonal Antibody: A Prospective Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study," was presented by Dr. Gregory Ogilvie of the Angel Care Cancer Center, California Veterinary Specialists, Carlsbad, California.  In this study, dogs were enrolled in a prospective, randomized, masked, placebo-controlled study, where all dogs were treated with one four-week cycle of L-CHOP chemotherapy and then randomized to either receive treatment with the canine MAb or placebo.  The median progression-free and overall survival times in the canine MAb arm of the study were 167 and 325 days, respectively, compared to 93.5 and 177 days for the placebo arm.  Adverse events were restricted to the L-CHOP cycle.

The second oral presentation, titled, "Treatment of Canine B-cell Lymphoma With Doxorubicin With or Without an Anti-CD20 Monoclonal Antibody: An Open-Label Pilot Study," was presented by Dr. Julie Bulman-Fleming of the Veterinary Cancer Group in Tustin, California.  This open-label study showed the median progression free survival with DOX + MAb was 98 days vs 57 days with DOX alone.  In addition, 75% (9/12) of dogs treated with DOX + MAb achieved complete remission compared to 60% receiving DOX alone.  In the relapse phase of the trial, median progression free survival with DOX + MAb was 113 days.  For dogs receiving >1 cycle DOX + MAb, overall survival was 316 days. Commercialization rights for this product for the United States and Canada have been licensed to a third party.

Dr. Carlos Rodriguez of the University of California at Davis presented a poster on the Company's caninized MAb against CD52 for the treatment of  T-cell Lymphoma titled, "Bioavailability and Safety of Caninized Anti-CD52 Monoclonal Antibody in Dogs With T-cell Lymphoma."  He concluded the canine anti-CD52 MAb is detectable in plasma after a single dose (initial mean half-life, 5.2 days) and accumulates after multiple doses (mean half-life, 6.6 days). In addition, anti-CD52 MAb was well tolerated in dogs with T-cell lymphoma.

About Aratana Therapeutics
Aratana Therapeutics is a pet therapeutics company focused on licensing, developing and commercializing innovative biopharmaceutical products for companion animals. Aratana believes that it can leverage the investment in the human biopharmaceutical industry to bring therapeutics to pets in a capital and time efficient manner. The Company's pipeline includes more than fifteen therapeutic candidates targeting pain, inappetence, cancer, viral diseases, allergy and other serious medical conditions.  Aratana believes the development and commercialization of these therapeutics will permit veterinarians and pet owners to manage pets' medical needs safely and effectively, resulting in longer and improved quality of life for pets.  For more information, please visit www.aratana.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements with respect to expectations regarding the timing of discussions with the FDA and approval of products; expectations regarding development programs, trials, studies and commercialization; and expectations regarding the Company's plans and opportunities.

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our limited operating history and expectations of losses for the foreseeable future; our lack of commercial sales; our failure to obtain any necessary additional financing; market conditions and our ability to raise capital under the shelf registration statement from the sale of our securities; our substantial dependence on the success of certain of our lead product candidates, our inability to identify, license, develop and commercialize additional product candidates; our inability to obtain regulatory approval for our existing or future product candidates; the lack of commercial success of our current or future product candidates; uncertainties regarding the outcomes of studies regarding our products; our inability to realize all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions of Vet Therapeutics and Okapi Sciences; the uncertainty of outcomes of the development of pet therapeutics, which is a lengthy and expensive process; effects of competition; our failure to attract and keep senior management and key scientific personnel; our reliance on third-party manufacturers, suppliers, partners and other third parties which conduct our target animal studies and certain other development efforts; our lack of a sales organization; our significant costs of operating as a public company; our current exemption from the requirement to maintain internal control over financial reporting, and any failure to achieve or maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future; changes in distribution channels for pet therapeutics; consolidation of our customers; impacts of generic products; limitations on our ability to use our net operating carryforwards; unanticipated safety or efficacy concerns; our limited patents and patent rights; our failure to comply with our intellectual property license obligations; our infringement of third party patents and challenges to our patents or rights; our failure to comply with regulatory requirements; our failure to report adverse medical events related to our products; legislative or regulatory changes; the volatility of our stock price; our status as an "emerging growth company," as defined in the JOBS Act; the potential for dilution if we sell shares of our common stock in future financings; the significant control over our business by our principal stockholders and management; the potential that a significant portion of our total outstanding shares could be sold into the market in the near future; effects of anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law; and our intention not to pay dividends. These and other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on March 26, 2014, along with our other reports filed with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release.  Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Contacts:
For investor inquires:
Aratana Therapeutics, Inc.

Craig Tooman
[email protected]; (913) 353-1023

For media inquiries:
Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.
Andrew Mielach
[email protected]; (212) 375-2694

SOURCE Aratana Therapeutics, Inc.