Promising Drug for chronic myeloid leukemia Fast tracked by FDA

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals chief executive Dr Greg Collier said the drug, omacetaxine, offered significant potential because it killed the stem cells that caused chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Dr Collier said 80 per cent of patients on the clinical trials conducted in Australia, the US and Europe, no longer had cancer in the blood and one in five no longer had cancer in the bone marrow.

International clinical trials confirm omacetaxine significantly increases the survival rates of patients. The drug may be available within months. "This is exciting because it targets those patients who have no other options," Dr Collier said. ChemGenex said the drug was in final clinical trials and the company was hopeful of approval by the US regulators the Food and Drug Administration early next year. The FDA has granted fast-track status to omacetaxine because the drug is the only treatment available to CML patients with a specific gene mutation.