Asterias announces successful completion of End-of-Phase 2 meeting with FDA for AML therapy

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE: AST) today announced the successful completion of an End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for AST-VAC1, its investigational therapy targeting acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

During the meeting, the FDA indicated general agreement with Asterias' proposed development plan for registration of AST-VAC1 through a single Phase 3 trial to support an accelerated development pathway and Biologics License Application (BLA) filing. In this study, Asterias will assess the impact of AST-VAC1 compared to placebo on the duration of relapse-free-survival as the primary endpoint, and on overall survival as the secondary endpoint in patients who have achieved complete remission using standard therapies. The proposed trial will include AML patients 60 years and older, along with younger individuals who are at high risk for relapse and are not candidates for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Pending positive results, this trial could be the basis for accelerated approval of AST-VAC1. Asterias currently plans to submit a request for a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) to the FDA to confirm the primary endpoint and other design elements of this pivotal Phase 3 trial.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the End-of-Phase 2 meeting and the feedback from our discussion with the FDA," stated Pedro Lichtinger, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We believe the results from the Phase 2 clinical trial of AST-VAC1 in AML are encouraging. We appreciate the valuable guidance that the FDA has provided us regarding the design and conduct of a Phase 3 registration program and look forward to further discussions in the Special Protocol Assessment process."

About Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. AML is the most common type of acute leukemia and has the potential for rapid progression, if untreated. In AML, the bone marrow produces an excess number of immature cells known as blasts. In AML, these blasts fail to mature into normal red and white blood cells. Instead, the blasts proliferate and accumulate in the bone marrow and peripheral blood, leading to deficiencies in normal mature cells. These deficiencies, often referred to as cytopenias, can induce several adverse effects including anemias and susceptibility to infections. Current treatment strategies for AML are associated with significant morbidities and in most instances, AML leads to death.

Approximately 20,500 new cases of AML are diagnosed in the U.S. annually. AML remains a high unmet clinical need, particularly in patients over the age of 60 years who face poor outcomes and have limited therapeutic options. Treatment and prognosis in AML is strongly influenced by a patient's age and tumor profile. Successful treatment and survival of advanced age patients or those with a high risk profile is very poor, with a four year relapse-free survival of 10% – 20% (Rolig et al, 2011). Detailed characterizations of genetic abnormalities associated with AML have elucidated their high number and relative complexity, making development of targeted therapeutics to these mutations very challenging. For this reason, broad immunotherapy approaches such as autologous cell vaccines are particularly promising.