CTI BioPharma blood cancer drug meets study goal

[March 10, 2015]  By Vidya L Nathan

(Reuters) - CTI BioPharma Corp's experimental blood cancer drug achieved the main goal of a late-stage study, but at least two analysts said the pill would not directly compete with Incyte Corp's treatment.

The company's shares shot up 10.9 percent in early morning trading, but were up only 4 percent at midday on the Nasdaq.

CTI BioPharma said on Monday its pacritinib significantly reduced the size of the spleen in patient's suffering from myelofibrosis, a form of blood cancer that makes the bone marrow produce too much of any type of blood cell.

"... we could see pacritinib ultimately finding a niche in the (myelofibrosis) market among low platelet patients and perhaps taking incremental share away from Incyte," Wells Fargo Securities analysts wrote in a note.

UBS Investment Research analysts also said CTI's drug was not a direct threat to Incyte's Jakafi, the only treatment for myelofibrosis to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A second late-stage study would determine how well pacritinib would compete with Jakafi, Janney Montgomery Scott's David Lebowitz said.

Jakafi, approved in November 2011, generated $357.6 million in revenue last year. Baxter International Inc bought the rights to sell pacritinib in November 2013.

Nearly 18,000 patients are estimated to live with myelofibrosis in the United States, CTI said.

The differentiating factor between the two drugs was that patients whose platelet counts went down, a condition called thrombocytopenia, responded to pacritinib.

CTI said its pill was significantly better than the "best available therapy" prescribed by patients' doctors. The therapies, however, did not include JAK 2 inhibitors.

Jakafi and pacritinib belong to a class of cancer-fighting drugs called JAK inhibitors, which disrupt production of a protein key to regulating the immune system and contributes to the growth of cancer cells.

Pacritinib brought down spleen size by 35 percent, CTI said but did not disclose in how many patients.

Jakafi had achieved the same target in 45 percent patients in its late-stage study.

(Editing by Savio D'Souza, Ted Kerr and Joyjeet Das)

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