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

Aratana Therapeutics, Inc. 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.