On February 28, 2018 PharmaCyte Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB: PMCB), a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing targeted cellular therapies for cancer and diabetes using its signature live-cell encapsulation technology, Cell-in-a-Box, today explains PharmaCyte’s plans to conduct a Phase 2b clinical trial (Press release, PharmaCyte Biotech, FEB 28, 2018, View Source [SID1234524256]).
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When PharmaCyte met with the FDA in January of 2017, PharmaCyte’s pre-IND meeting submission was predicated on PharmaCyte conducting a Phase 2b trial. During discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PharmaCyte asked whether the data from that planned trial could be considered "pivotal" and thus support registration for marketing purposes. The FDA indicated that this was a possibility, but that the trial would have to be much larger than PharmaCyte was planning and the data would have to be markedly superior to the data seen with the comparator treatment.
PharmaCyte’s decision to conduct a Phase 2b trial rather than a pivotal trial was made relatively recently based on advice from PharmaCyte’s consulting oncologists, Chief Medical Officer and information obtained from PharmaCyte’s Advisory Board. PharmaCyte must rely on data from two European trials from 27 patients that were conducted about 20 years ago. The data from these trials are incomplete when compared to what is now required by the FDA to support a pivotal trial.
The Phase 2b trial is designed to determine how effective and safe multiple courses of ifosfamide will be in patients with locally advanced, non-metastatic, inoperable pancreatic cancer (LAPC) and how PharmaCyte’s treatment compares to a commonly used treatment for LAPC after patients’ tumors no longer respond following 4 to 6 months of the combination therapy of gemcitabine and Abraxane. PharmaCyte is designing a Phase 2b clinical trial that, if successful, it believes will give the company a much more solid foundation for dealing with the FDA with the goal of bringing its pancreatic cancer therapy to market.
The planned Phase 2b trial will be significantly larger than the original Phase 2b trial PharmaCyte previously discussed with the FDA and will include multiple courses of low dose ifosfamide (the earlier trials used only two courses). This trial will also provide better statistical analyses of PharmaCyte’s therapy for LAPC and the comparator arm in terms of survival and safety. Also, the possibility exists that if the data from PharmaCyte’s therapy are significantly better than the data from the comparator arm, this may allow PharmaCyte to apply to the FDA for accelerated approval.