Yesterday was the third day of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) 2011 Annual Meeting in San Diego, and it was packed full with mul­ti­ple myeloma-related pre­sen­ta­tions. Presentations started early in the morn­ing and con­tinued through the afternoon.

The morn­ing pre­sen­ta­tions about po­ten­tial new myeloma ther­a­pies will be covered in this up­date, and pre­sen­ta­tions from the rest of the day will be covered in addi­tional up­dates.

MLN9708

During the first talk of the day, Dr. Paul Richardson from the Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute in Boston pre­sented re­­sults from a Phase 1 study of …

A new study suggests that NPI-0052 (marizomib), a new product being developed by Nereus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., may be more active and less toxic in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma despite treatment with Velcade (bortezomib) and other drugs. Researchers presented the preliminary results of the Phase 1 trial on December 7 at the 51st annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Found in marine bacteria, NPI-0052 acts, like Velcade, as a proteasome inhibitor. Both compounds prevent enzymes in cancer cells that regulate growth from working properly, which …

Description:
Marizomib (NPI-0052, salinosporide A) (news articles) is a novel proteasome inhibitor that suppresses tumor growth by inhibiting the enzymes that break down important proteins in cancerous cells.  Marizomib may be used as an alternative treatment to Velcade (bortezomib), the first approved proteasome inhibitor, because it has shown significant activity …