Shares of EpiCept more than doubled in pre-market trading after researchers announced that its brain tumor drug Azixa has demonstrated additional efficacy as a vascular disrupting agent. The compound is licensed to Myriad Genetics, which said that vascular disrupting deprives a tumor of its blood supply, leading to tumor death. Myriad is putting Azixa--which has already demonstrated an ability to induce apoptosis--through two mid-stage trials. Myriad reported that Azixa induced cell death in several primary types of a tumor's endothelium, including micro-vessel endothelial cells. Myriad also reported that in human ovarian cancer xenografts, a single dose of Azixa induced dramatic tumor blood vessel damage and tumor cell death within 24 hours.
Myriad's findings are another indication of the substantial clinical opportunity that Azixa represents," remarked Jack Talley, president and CEO.
- see this release for more information
- here's the AP report on the data
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