PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Telik, Inc. reported today positive preclinical data demonstrating that TELINTRA (TLK199) accelerated the recovery of white blood cells (neutrophils) in standard preclinical models of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. The company reported that neutrophil recovery was also mediated and preceded by significantly increased levels of G-CSF and GM-CSF. Recombinant G-CSF and GM- CSF are the current standards of care for the treatment of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. The data were presented at the 46th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.
Results demonstrated that a single oral or injected dose of TELINTRA resulted in up to a 500% increase in serum G-CSF levels. In a standard model of neutropenia, TELINTRA accelerated the recovery of circulating neutrophils, and this recovery corresponded to earlier peak serum G-CSF levels. In a separate study, treatment of primary human bone marrow stromal cells with TELINTRA resulted in production of G-CSF, GM-CSF and interleukin-6 at levels 200% to 400% greater than control.
"The opportunity to evaluate an oral formulation of TELINTRA in a Phase 1- 2a trial following a successful Phase 1-2a trial of the parenteral formulation in myelodysplastic syndrome adds significant breadth to the development program," said Michael K. Inouye, senior vice president, commercial operations. "These new data support further development of TELINTRA for potential use in cytopenia associated with cancer chemotherapy."
Telik, Inc. of Palo Alto, CA is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel small molecule drugs to treat serious diseases. The company's most advanced drug development candidate is TELCYTA(R) (TLK286), a tumor-activated small molecule product candidate which is in four Phase 3 registration trials in advanced ovarian and non-small cell lung cancer. Telik's product candidates were discovered using its proprietary drug discovery technology, TRAP(TM), which enables the rapid and efficient discovery of small molecule drug candidates. Additional information is available at http://www.telik.com/
This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements concerning the potential for TELINTRA to treat myelodysplastic syndrome or chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. There are important factors that could cause Telik's results to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements, including, among others, that TELINTRA has not been determined to be safe or effective in humans or received regulatory approval for marketing, preclinical data are not necessarily indicative of clinical results, and clinical trials of TELINTRA may take several years to complete and may not be successful. Detailed information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by statements in this press release may be found in Telik's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006. TELIK, TRAP, TELCYTA and TELINTRA are trademarks of Telik, Inc. Telik does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
