Acceleron, Celgene Announce Preliminary Results From Sotatercept Phase 2 Study

(RTTNews) - Acceleron Pharma Inc. (XLRN) and Celgene Corp. (CELG) announced preliminary results from an ongoing investigator initiated Phase 2 study with investigational drug sotatercept in patients with myelofibrosis at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology or ASH in San Diego, California.

Sotatercept is being developed as part of the global collaboration between Acceleron and Celgene. an investigational product that is not approved for use in any country.

According to the companies, preliminary results showed that treatment with investigational drug sotatercept can increase hemoglobin and achieve transfusion independence in patients with myelofibrosis.

Michael Pehl, President, Hematology and Oncology for Celgene said, "These initial and encouraging data support our efforts for further clinical development work with our Acceleron-partnered programs in myelofibrosis. We believe these programs have the potential to address a major unmet need in patients with myelofibrosis."

19 patients were enrolled in the Phase 2 study and treated with sotatercept - 12 patients at 0.75 mg/kg and 7 at 1 mg/kg. 14 of these patients have received at least 5 doses of sotatercept and are evaluable for response.

36 percent of the evaluable patients achieved an anemia response, defined as a composite of RBC-transfusion-independence and hemoglobin response, representing an increase of =1.5 g/dL from baseline on every determination consecutively over =84 days without RBC transfusions.