- Epizyme (NASDAQ:EPZM) slumps 17% premarket on robust volume in response to its announcement of interim data from a Phase 2 clinical trial assessing lead product candidate tazemetostat for the treatment of relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The results were presented at the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma in Lugano, Switzerland.
- The overall response rate (ORR) in 17 DLBCL patients with a mutation called EZH2 was 29% which was lower than the 40% rate presented at ASCO on 10 patients, implying only one new responder out of seven (14%).
- Tazemetostat inhibits an enzyme called EZH2 (enhancer of zeste homolog 2), which plays a key role in DNA methylation and transcriptional repression. Mutation or over-expression of EZH2 is associated with a range of cancers. It is being developed for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, certain genetically defined solid tumors and (until now) synovial sarcoma.
- Previously: Epizyme's tazemetostat Fast Track'd for DLBCL; development as monotherapy in synovial sarcoma axed due to lack of effect (Nov. 28, 2016)
- Now read: Dynavax: An Analysis Of The Approvability Of Heplisav-B
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