Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (CBI) unit CureTech Ltd. received FDA approval for a Phase II clinical trial for a third indication for its drug technology.
The study will measure the efficacy of the company's flagship product, an antibody that stimulates an anti-cancer immune response against several forms of cancer, in treatment of non-Hodgekin's lymphoma.
Patients in the study will be those in whom the cancer returned originally went into remission. CureTech's drug will be given in conjunction with the widely used treatment Rituxin.
CureTech's drug is already in two other Phase II trials to study its effect on hematological malignancies (after bone marrow transplants) and on colorectal cancer. Both studies are supported in a collaboration with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA).
The new study will be conducted by University of Texas MD Anderson cancer center.
Clal Biotech shares jumped 10.3% yesterday on the news, and are up 335% in 2009. The shares pulled back about 1% this afternoon.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2009
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