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Australia’s Progen Receives Orphan Drug Status for PI-88

August 15, 2007

Australia’s Progen Pharmaceuticals announced that the Committee for Orphan Medical Products of the Emergency Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products has recommended granting orphan status for PI-88, a treatment for primary liver cancer.

The orphan drug designation will come into effect upon the European Commission’s adoption of the recommendation, which Progen said it expects to occur in the third quarter.

The company said it will launch a multinational, two-armed, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III study of PI-88 this year.

The company added that it is conducting a Phase II trial in patients with melanoma and expects results during the second half of 2008.