Hana Biosciences Gets Good News For Menadione
April 1, 2010 (FinancialWire) — Hana Biosciences (OTCBB: HNAB), a biopharmaceutical company focused on strengthening the foundation of cancer care, said it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the use of menadione to prevent and treat skin rash in patients taking biologic and small molecule epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, such as Erbitux and Tarceva, for anti-cancer therapy.
The U.S. Patent Application Number 11/886,803 is entitled "Vitamin K for Prevention and Treatment of Skin Rash Secondary to Anti-EGFR Therapy" and extends intellectual property protection around menadione into 2026. The company also has a similar patent application for menadione co-pending in Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Additional applications extending the use of menadione have been filed.
Hana has completed a Phase 1 study of menadione topical lotion in healthy volunteers, which demonstrated delivery of menadione into the skin without appreciable systemic absorption. In addition, menadione topical lotion was generally well-tolerated. The company has recently completed enrollment of a proof-of-concept study of menadione topical lotion in cancer patients receiving EGFR inhibitors for anti-cancer therapy. This study assessed both treatment potential in patients with new onset rash and prophylactic potential in those about to begin an EGFR inhibitor. The company expects to present the proof-of-concept data and initiate a randomized Phase 2 trial by the end of 2010.
Rash is a common, painful and treatment-limiting skin toxicity side effect of all approved EGFR inhibitors (e.g. Tarceva, Iressa, Erbitux, Vectibix, Tykerb) with incidence rates as high as 90 percent. EGFR inhibitor-associated rash can lead to reduced compliance and cause dose reductions, delays or discontinuation of EGFR inhibitor therapy in a significant portion of affected patients. Currently, there are no products or therapies FDA-approved to treat these skin toxicities.
Hana Biosciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing new, differentiated cancer therapies designed to improve and enable current standards of care.
FinancialWire(tm) is committed to serving the financial community through true journalism and providing relevant resources to investors. Standards-based, independent equity research on numerous public companies is available through the Investrend Research Syndicate (http://www.investrend.com/reports) written by FIRST Research Consortium (http://www.investrend.com/FIRST) member-providers. Free annual reports and company filings for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Investrend Information Syndicate (at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279). FinancialWire(tm), in cooperation with the Investrend Broadcast Syndicate, also provides complete, daily conference call and webcast schedules as a service to shareholders and investors via the FirstAlert(tm) Network’s “FirstAlert(tm) Daily” (http://www.financialwire.net/news-alerts/).
FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) website (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.