Geron commences enrollment in imetelstat Phase 2 clinical trial in essential thrombocythemia

Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) today announced enrollment of the first patient in a Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the activity of the company's telomerase inhibitor drug, imetelstat (GRN163L), in patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET). ET is a chronic disorder that arises in the hematopoietic (blood) stem cells in the bone marrow. The leukemic stem cells produce aberrant clones of platelet-forming cells (megakaryocytes), which results in increased numbers of circulating platelets.

"Our Phase 2 clinical trials of imetelstat are focused on malignancies in which cancer stem cells are thought to play an important role in disease progression, including breast and lung cancers, multiple myeloma and myeloproliferative neoplasms, such as essential thrombocythemia," said Stephen M. Kelsey, M.D., Geron's executive vice president and chief medical officer, oncology. "In ET, we think that targeting the leukemic stem cell with imetelstat might impact the biology of the disease, which is not possible with current standard treatments."