MILLENNIUM BEGINS VELCADE TRIAL

Millennium Pharmaceuticals has started a Phase III trial of Velcade with rituximab to study progression-free survival in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, a subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The study will be conducted in about 670 patients and be given a weekly dose of Velcade of 1.6 mg/m2 and rituximab of 375 mg/m2.

Velcade is for the treatment of multiple myeloma patients who have received at least one prior therapy. Secondary endpoints of the study include overall response rate and duration of response.