Targeted Failure of the week. Post No 55. Perifosine

From here and here.

Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) (TSX: AEZ) (the "Company") today announced that an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board ("DSMB") has recommended discontinuing the ongoing Phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of perifosine to placebo when combined with bortezomib (Velcade^®) and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Based on the outcome of its pre-planned interim analysis of efficacy and safety, the DSMB recommended that patient enrollment be stopped and the study discontinued. The DSMB reported that it was highly unlikely the study would achieve a significant difference in its primary endpoint, progression free survival; no safety concerns were raised.

 

Just one comment: despite the fact that perifosine is called as a targeted compound, in the reality it is not - it is involved in a range of mechanisms without exhibiting any specific targeting properties:

 

KRX-0401 (Perifosine) is a novel, potentially first-in-class, oral anti-cancer agent that modulates Akt and a number of other key signal transduction pathways, including the JNK and MAPK pathways, all of which are pathways associated with programmed cell death, cell growth, cell differentiation and cell survival.