Benzinga | Sep 22, 2020 05:16AM EDT

Kazia Announced Clinical Collaboration With Dana-farber Cancer Institute For Primary CNS Lymphoma

Kazia Therapeutics Limited (NASDAQ:KZIA) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in the United States, to investigate the use of Kazia's investigational new drug, paxalisib (formerly GDC-0084), in primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, a potential new indication for the drug.

Key Points

Lymphoma is a cancer of white blood cells. It occurs in the lymphatic system and can spread almost anywhere in the body; primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL) occurs exclusively in the brain and central nervous systemThe PI3K inhibitor class is well validated in lymphoma outside the brain; three of the four FDA-approved PI3K inhibitors are treatments for forms of lymphoma, but they are assumed ineffective for PCNSL since they cannot cross the blood-brain barrierDFCI will initiate an open-label phase II clinical trial of paxalisib in PCNSLThe study is expected to recruit up to 25 patients, taking up to 2 years to completeKazia will provide support including study drug and a financial grantThis study will be the sixth ongoing clinical trial of paxalisib in brain cancerDana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) is a world-leading cancer treatment and research centre, based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and has been designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the US National Cancer Institute. DFCI participates in as many as 600 clinical trials at any given time and has been an important contributor to the development of many important new cancer therapies.

Kazia CEO, Dr James Garner, commented, "this is an exciting new opportunity for the paxalisib program. We are delighted to support the team at Dana-Farber to explore the potential for paxalisib to benefit patients with PCNSL. Dana-Farber is one of the world's leading centres of excellence in this disease, so we are immensely fortunate to be working with them. We are pleased also to see a new and important target added to the broader paxalisib clinical program, and we look forward to seeing the project commence."

Kazia's financial support to the study will use a portion of the funds contributed by shareholders in the Share Purchase Plan (SPP) conducted in May 2020.