COUGAR BIOTECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES INTERIM RESULTS FROM CB3304 TRIAL

Cougar Biotechnology has announced positive interim data from an ongoing Phase I trial of the company's drug CB3304 (noscapine), an orally active alkaloid that has been shown to induce conformational changes in tubulin, in patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).

The trial is an open-label, dose-escalating study where cohorts of subjects with relapsed/refractory NHL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL/SLL) were treated at one of three different dose levels involving total daily doses of 1 g, 2 g, and 3 g per day. At each dose level, noscapine was administered orally on a three times a day schedule for 49 days.

Twelve patients with a median age of 65 years have been accrued. Four subjects had CLL/SLL, two had mantle cell lymphoma, one had follicular Grade III, four had diffuse large cell lymphoma, and one had lymphoplasmacytic low grade lymphoma.