BeyondSpring Inc. a global clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative cancer therapies, today announced that the Company’s Chief Medical Officer and Head of Business Development, Ramon Mohanlal, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., will present clinically and statistically significant data on BeyondSpring’s lead asset, Plinabulin, for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia at this year’s BIO-Europe Spring meeting in Barcelona, Spain.
The presentation will take place on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, at 9:15 a.m., local time, in Room 119 on Level One at the CCIB Convention Centre. BeyondSpring is advancing Plinabulin into a global Phase 3 clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer treatment and global Phase 2/3 clinical trial for Neutropenia prevention.
Plinabulin, a novel small molecule that alters the tumor micro-environment and stimulates dendritic cell maturation and T-cell activation, has produced encouraging data regarding the mitigation of severe Neutropenia, a common and potentially life-threatening adverse effect of Docetaxel. Plinabulin can be administered one hour after chemotherapy and has the potential to be a safe, cost-effective and convenient alternative to G-CSF, the current standard of care for chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia, with much less bone pain and a more favorable safety profile.
Plinabulin offers a same-day dosing advantage over G-CSF, which should be administered 24 hours after chemotherapy, per G-CSF label (next-day dosing), by which time a significant damage to Neutrophils has occurred. Additionally, Plinabulin has demonstrated a reduction in clinical sequelae associated with Docetaxel-induced Neutropenia, including infections, sepsis, hospitalizations and the need for Docetaxel dose reductions.
“BeyondSpring’s chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia program with Plinabulin represents a near-term commercial opportunity with a superior target product profile; and, as such, it is critical to identify strong pharmaceutical partners with deep knowledge of the territory and oncology supportive care space,” said Dr. Mohanlal. “Partnerships like these are vital to Plinabulin’s commercial success and will enable BeyondSpring to bring this opportunity fully to fruition. We plan to meet with a number of pharma companies at BIO-Europe to discuss our ongoing and upcoming work with Plinabulin as a result.”
Neutropenia, a common side effect of chemotherapy in cancer patients, is the destruction of a type of white blood cell (Neutrophil) that is a key component of the innate immune system. Neutrophils are a patient’s first line of defense against infections, and patients with severe (grade 4) Neutropenia (an abnormally low concentration of Neutrophils in the blood) are more susceptible to severe bacterial, viral and fungal infections and sepsis, which require hospitalization.
More than 60,000 patients are hospitalized each year for chemotherapy-induced severe Neutropenia, which is associated with fever, infections and death in up to 18 percent of these cases. When severe Neutropenia occurs, the chemotherapy dose has to be reduced or interrupted until the Neutropenia subsides. This reduction or interruption causes patients to receive suboptimal chemotherapy cancer treatment.
“BeyondSpring is fortunate to have attracted significant interest from strong pharmaceutical companies that notice the huge commercial potential of Plinabulin for chemotherapy-induced Neutropenia specifically,” added Dr. Lan Huang, Ph.D., BeyondSpring CEO. “As Neutropenia is a serious issue that affects countless chemotherapy patients globally, we are committed to bringing Plinabulin to market as quickly and efficiently as possible and to finding the right pharma partners who can push forward on this path with us to fundamentally change the landscape of cancer treatment in the months and years to come.”
