COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Celsion Corporation (NASDAQ:CLSN - News), a leading oncology drug development company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) has granted orphan drug designation for its lead compound, ThermoDox®, a proprietary heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin, for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), commonly referred to as primary liver cancer. ThermoDox® is currently being evaluated under a Special Protocol Assessment with the FDA in a 600 patient, global Phase III trial in patients with non-resectable primary liver cancer. Celsion expects to complete patient enrollment for this trial in the first quarter of 2010.
“We are pleased to receive FDA orphan drug designation for ThermoDox®,” stated Mr. Michael H. Tardugno, Celsion’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Orphan drug status is an acknowledgement of the significant unmet need to develop a new treatment for patients with primary liver cancer, a life threatening disorder for which today there is no effective chemotherapeutic standard of care. We look forward to working with the FDA and other regulatory agencies to make ThermoDox® available to patients as soon as possible.”
FDA’s Orphan Drug Act provides economic incentives to encourage biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs that demonstrate promise for the treatment of life-threatening or very serious conditions that are rare and affect 200,000 persons or less in the United States. Orphan drug designation entitles Celsion to seven years of market exclusivity following FDA approval, FDA assistance in clinical trial design, a reduction in FDA user fees, U.S. tax credits related to development expenses as well as the opportunity to apply for funding from the U.S. government to defray costs of clinical trial expenses.
Primary liver cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer and ranks as the fifth most common solid tumor cancer. The incidence of primary liver cancer is approximately 20,000 cases per year in the United States and is rapidly growing worldwide at approximately 1,000,000 cases per year, due to the high prevalence of Hepatitis B and C in developing countries. The standard first line treatment for liver cancer is surgical resection of the tumor, however 80% to 90% of patients are ineligible for surgery. Radio frequency ablation (RFA) has increasingly become the standard of care for non-resectable liver tumors, but the treatment becomes less effective for larger tumors. There are few non-surgical therapeutic treatment options available as radiation therapy and chemotherapy are largely ineffective in the treatment of primary liver cancer.
About ThermoDox®
ThermoDox® in combination with hyperthermia has the potential to provide local tumor control and improve quality of life. ThermoDox® is a proprietary heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin, an approved and frequently used oncology drug for the treatment of a wide range of cancers including breast cancer. Localized mild hyperthermia (40-42 degrees Celsius) releases the entrapped doxorubicin from the liposome. This delivery technology enables high concentrations of doxorubicin to be deposited preferentially in a targeted tumor.
For primary liver cancer, ThermoDox® is being evaluated in a 600 patient global Phase III study at 40 clinical sites under an FDA Special Protocol Assessment. The study is designed to evaluate the efficacy of ThermoDox in combination with RFA when compared to patients who receive RFA alone as the control. The primary endpoint for the study is progression-free survival and enrollment is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2010. For recurrent chest wall breast cancer, ThermoDox® is being evaluated in a pivotal Phase I/II open-label, dose-escalating trial that is designed to measure durable local complete response at the tumor site. Celsion expects to enroll approximately 100 patients across the United States and to complete the study by the first half of 2010. Additional information on these ThermoDox® clinical studies may be found at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov.
About Celsion
Celsion is a leading oncology company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative cancer drugs including tumor-targeting treatments using focused heat energy in combination with heat-activated drug delivery systems. Celsion has research, license, or commercialization agreements with leading institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, Duke University Medical Center, University of Hong Kong, Cleveland Clinic, and the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System.
For more information on Celsion, visit our website: http://www.celsion.com.
Celsion wishes to inform readers that forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, unforeseen changes in the course of research and development activities and in clinical trials by others; possible acquisitions of other technologies, assets or businesses; possible actions by customers, suppliers, competitors, regulatory authorities; and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Celsion Corporation Sean Moran, 410-290-5390 Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer smoran@celsion.com or The Trout Group Marcy Nanus, 646-378-2927 mnanus@troutgroup.com
