Faron Pharmaceuticals Limited (AIM:FARN, OTC:FPHAF) said it saw an objective response to its cancer drug in three of the five hard-to-treat patients enrolled in its early-stage clinical trial.
Faron’s drug Bexmarilimab was administered to people with blood-borne malignancies along with standard-of-care chemotherapy.
The researcher saw complete remission in a patient with acute myeloid leukaemia and one with previously untreated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), as well as partial remission in another person with MDS.
The aim of the phase I/II study was to assess safety and tolerability of the drug in combination with the standard of care and to identify the phase II dose. Assessing for signs of efficacy was a secondary ambition.
A five-patient group that will receive a higher dose has already been recruited to receive treatment on the BEXMAB trial, as has a group of three cancer sufferers.
The people assessed for the first cohort had a 'refractory' form of the disease, meaning they had failed the standard of care.
Faron’s chief medical officer, Marie-Louise Fjällskog, said: "We are excited about the initial promising results and look forward to gathering additional clinical data for more robust read-outs."