Posts Tagged ‘cancer’

UPDATE — Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MIPI) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

We first featured Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPI) on June 18th, after the company announced nonclinical data demonstrating the utility of the Company’s novel radiopharmaceutical compounds for the molecular imaging of prostate and other tumors at the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) annual meeting in Salt Lake City.

Less than a week later, Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals announced positive data from a completed Phase 2a clinical study of Azedra™, the Company’s lead oncology therapeutic for a common childhood cancer. Shares were up more than 65 percent from Wednesday’s closing price, in morning trading on Thursday on almost 10-times the company’s average three-month trading volume.

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The company said data from the Azedra study showed that doses of 12 millicurie/kg to 18 millicurie/kg of the drug were tolerated without toxicity and the drug was active in tumors. The main goal of the study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose of Azedra.

“We showed that Ultratrace iobenguane I-131 with AHSC support is feasible at 18 mCi/kg without significant toxicity and with promising partial and complete responses that support proceeding to a pivotal Phase 2 study at18 mCi/kg,” said lead investigator Katherine K. Matthay, M.D., the Mildred V. Strouss Professor of Translational Cancer Research and Chief, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology in Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Azedra is currently in advanced clinical trials for the treatment of malignant pheochromocytoma, a rare, hard-to-access neuroendocrine tumor that develops in the core of an adrenal gland.

Celgene Corp. (CELG) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Shares of cancer drug maker, Celgene Corp. were up 6 percent from Friday’s close after the company announced positive results from a Phase II study of lenalidomide (REVLIMID) in untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Results of the Phase II single-arm study reported that at a median follow-up of 23 months, the overall response rate (OR) for 60 evaluable patients was 62 percent, and 15 percent of patients achieved a complete response (CR/CRi). At the median follow-up, median progression-free survival had not been reached and the overall survival rate was 90 percent. The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events reported in the study were neutropenia (38 percent of cycles), thrombocytopenia (14 percent of cycles), and anemia (<1 percent of cycles). Grade 3-4 infections were observed in 15 percent of patients.

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REVLIMID is an IMiDs® compound, which along with other IMiDs continue to be evaluated in over 100 clinical trials. The IMiDs pipeline is covered by a comprehensive intellectual property estate of issued and pending patent applications in the US, EU and other regions, including composition-of- matter and use patents. REVLIMID is approved in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy in nearly 50 countries, encompassing Europe, the Americas, the Middle-East and Asia, and in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of patients whose disease has progressed after one therapy in Australia and New Zealand.

Shares of Celgene Corp. are up 20 percent over the past 12 months.