Geron Corp's blood cancer drug succeeds in late-stage study

[January 04, 2023]  By Sriparna Roy

(Reuters) -Geron Corp said on Wednesday its experimental blood cancer drug helped more patients achieve independence from blood transfusions when compared with a placebo in a late-stage trial.

The company's shares were up 63% at $3.90 in premarket trading.

The drug, imetelstat, was being studied in patients with a type of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a difficult to treat family of blood cancers.

Patients with the disease require frequent blood transfusions to manage their anemia, and the only treatment option is a bone marrow transplant.

Nearly 40% of the 118 patients who were on the drug showed independence from transfusion for eight weeks, compared with 15% of the 60 patients on placebo, the company said.

The results suggest that treatment with the drug "may be altering the course of the disease," Chief Medical Officer Faye Feller said in a statement.

Based on the data, the company plans to submit applications for approval in the United States in mid-2023 and in Europe in the second half of 2023, and anticipates commercial launch in 2024.

Geron Corp anticipates a peak market potential of $1.2 billion in the United States and key EU countries, Chief Executive Officer John Scarlett told Reuters.

The drug also met its secondary goal, with 28% of the patients using the drug not needing transfusion for 24 weeks, compared with 3.3% of the patients on placebo.

Adverse effects observed during the late-stage trial were consistent with previous trials, with low count of platelets and white blood among the most common.

The company said these adverse effects were not uncommon.

Geron Corp is also testing the drug for myelofibrosis, a rare type of bone marrow cancer, and expects an interim analysis in 2024. If approved, the drug would compete with Incyte Corp's myelofibrosis drug, Jakafi.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.