Portola Pharma Reports Will Present Data on Dual Kinase Inhibitor Cerdulatinib at ASCO

Portola Pharmaceuticals PTLA today announced that it will present updated safety and efficacy data from the Phase 1 part of its ongoing Phase 1/2a proof-of-concept study of cerdulatinib in patients with hematologic cancers who have failed multiple therapies. The data will be presented in a poster discussion session at the upcoming 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which is taking place from May 29-June 2 in Chicago. The Company also announced that it has initiated two clinical expansion cohorts in the Phase 2a part of the study, which will enroll patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or follicular lymphoma (FL) who have progressed or relapsed on other therapies. The Phase 1 part of the study is ongoing as the maximum tolerated dose has not yet been achieved. Cerdulatinib is an oral, dual Syk-JAK kinase inhibitor that Portola is developing to treat patients with hematologic cancers, specifically those who have relapsed or who have not responded to prior therapies. "We have demonstrated initial clinical proof-of-concept in the ongoing dose-escalation Phase 1 part of the study showing that cerdulatinib is active and well tolerated. We have seen partial responses with this unique dual pathway anti-cancer agent and clinical activity in patients who failed or could not tolerate prior therapy with BTK and PI3K kinase inhibitors," said John T. Curnutte, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president, research and development for Portola. "Based on these promising preliminary data, we have advanced cerdulatinib to the next stage of clinical development to study larger expansion cohorts in the Phase 2a part of the study. We will evaluate two cohorts of patients with CLL or FL whose cancer has progressed or relapsed following treatment with multiple agents. These patients have limited treatment options. Our goal is to identify patient populations with significant unmet need in whom the inhibition of both Syk and JAK by cerdulatinib may provide clinical benefit." The cerdulatinib abstract is now available at abstracts.asco.org. Details regarding the cerdulatinib poster presentation, which will include additional data not currently available in the published abstract, follow.