BioLineRx Announces Regulatory Submission for Novel Stem Cell Mobilization Treatment
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BioLineRx has announced that it has filed the necessary regulatory submissions to commence a Phase 1 trial for BL-8040, a novel treatment for the mobilization of stem cells from the bone marrow to the peripheral blood circulation.
The regulatory submissions were filed with the Hadassah Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the study is expected to commence during the second quarter of 2014.
The Phase 1 study will be divided into two parts. Part 1 is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled dose escalation study exploring the safety and tolerability of escalating repeated doses of BL-8040 in healthy volunteers.
Secondary objectives include assessment of the efficacy of BL-8040 in mobilizing stem cells as a stand-alone therapy, as well as monitoring the pharmacokinetic profile of the drug. This part will be performed in up to 4 cohorts, with 8 healthy volunteers in each cohort.
Part 1 of the study will serve to select the optimal safe and efficacious dose of BL-8040 to be used as a stand-alone therapy in Part 2 of the study.
Part 2 is an open-label study designed to assess BL-8040's stem cell mobilization capacity, as well as the yield of cells collected by leukapheresis. Secondary endpoints of the study include evaluation of the viability and biological activity of cells mobilized by BL-8040 and collected by leukapheresis. This part will be performed in a single cohort of 8 healthy volunteers who will receive the selected dose regimen of BL-8040 based on the data from Part 1.
"Increasingly, stem cell mobilization is being used as a method of collecting stem cells, either for autologous use or for donation, instead of the surgical procedure of bone marrow harvesting. The current procedure involves daily injections of G-CSF for 4-6 days, a procedure that is costly, and moreover, not effective in up to 20% of multiple myeloma patients. Therefore, we were very enthusiastic about the results of BL-8040's Phase 1/2 study in multiple myeloma patients, recently published in the peer review journal Clinical Cancer Research, which showed that a single injection of BL-8040 is highly effective in mobilizing stem cells in combination with G-CSF," explained Dr. Kinneret Savitsky, Chief Executive Officer of BioLineRx.
Dr. Savitsky continued, "This trial now aims to assess the mobilization efficacy of BL-8040 as a stand-alone therapy, which could shorten and reduce costs of the mobilization protocol significantly. As previously announced, BL-8040 is also currently in the midst of a Phase 2 study for acute myeloid leukemia patients, the results of which are expected in the second half of 2014. Stem cell mobilization is just one example of the additional hematological indications that we intend to investigate for the BL-8040 platform in the future."
