Geron Commences Initial-Stage Rare Blood Cancer Combination Study

Geron Corporation GERN has dosed first patient in IMproveMF study evaluating imetelstat in combination with ruxolitinib for patients with frontline myelofibrosis (MF).

IMproveMF is a two-part Phase 1 study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical activity of imetelstat in combination with ruxolitinib as a frontline treatment in patients with Intermediate-2 or frontline myelofibrosis (MF).

The Part 1 of the study will enroll up to 20 frontline MF patients, the primary purpose of Part 1 is to identify a safe dose for treating frontline MF patients with a combination of imetelstat and ruxolitinib.

Upon identifying safe dose in Part 1, the participants in Part 2 will receive treatment with ruxolitinib after screening and enrollment at a starting dose based on standard-of-care or local prescribing information.

Faye Feller, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, commented: "We designed the Phase 1 IMproveMF study based on preclinical data that showed the sequential treatment of ruxolitinib followed by imetelstat had a selective inhibitory effect on malignant MF stem cells, while sparing normal hematopoietic stem cells. This disease-modifying potential of imetelstat to affect the malignant clones driving disease progression differentiates it from any other drug currently approved or in development for myelofibrosis treatment.”

Geron is planning to present preliminary results from this study by the end of 2023.

Price Action : Geron shares are trading around 2 percent higher at $2.22 on Monday during after-hours session.