Threshold delays release of glufosfamide analysis

Threshold Pharmaceuticals says it will delay a release on Phase III data for its pancreatic cancer drug glufosfamide until some time in 2007. Threshold also announced it will begin patient screening for two new mid-stage trials of glufosfamide by the end of this year for ovarian cancer and small cell lung cancer. The reason for the delay, according to a Threshold release, is that the trial will end on notification of the 258th death of one of the volunteers in the study. In its timeline for the trial, researchers expected to pass that milepost by early December, but now expect it to happen in January of 2007. Data analysis will take another four to six weeks before results can be released.

"In an event-driven analysis such as this, projecting the timing of the study completion is an inexact science. It is dependent on individual survival times of all patients in the trial as well as other prognostic factors such as performance status and extent of disease," said Barry Selick, Ph.D., Threshold's CEO.

- see the release on the clinical trial