Adventrx sees positive Ph II CoFactor cancer trial data

USA-based Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, a specialist developer of anticancer and antiviral drugs, has announced positive efficacy and safety data from Phase II trials of its candidate compound CoFactor as a cancer treatment. The findings were presented at the 2006 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, USA.

The results, which were confirmed by an independent radiology organization contracted by the firm to ensure objectivity, showed that the drug, in combination with 5-fluorouracil, yielded a clinical benefit of 85% in terms of objective response to treatment, defined as those patients having complete or partial tumor responses. The secondary study endpoint, time to tumor progression increased to 163 days. The drug was also well-tolerated with no grade three or four drug-related toxicity events recorded during the program.

Adventrx' executive vice president, Joan Robbins, said: "Cofactor plus 5-FU helped stabilize the overwhelming majority of these patients and did so with a minimum of serious hematological and gastrointestinal toxicity.