DALLAS, May 24, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arog Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs to treat unmet medical needs in oncology, today announced that its abstract highlighting the company’s lead product candidate, crenolanib, has been selected for oral presentation in a plenary session at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Crenolanib continues to demonstrate best-in-class properties in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with FLT3 mutations. In addition, Arog will present a poster on its dose escalating study of crenolanib besylate in advanced GIST patients with PDGFRA D842V activating mutations.
Oral Presentation, Abstract #7008
Title: Crenolanib besylate, a type I pan-FLT3 inhibitor, to demonstrate clinical activity in multiply relapsed FLT3-ITD and D835 AML
Authors: Robert Collins, Hagop M. Kantarjian, Tapan M. Kadia, Gautam Borthakur, Marina Konopleva, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Naval Guastad Daver, Naveen Pemmaraju, Elias Jabbour, Zeev Estrov, Abhijit Ramachandran, Jamil Paradela, Blake Pond, Farhad Ravandi, Madhuri Vusirikala, Prapti Arvind Patel, Mark J. Lewis, Alexander E. Perl, Michael Andreeff, Jorge E. Cortes
Presenter: Dr. Jorge E. Cortes
Session: Hematologic Malignancies – Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and Allotransplan
Date: Saturday, June 4, 2016
Time: 5:24 - 5:36 PM CST
Location: Arie Crown Theater
Poster Presentation, Abstract #11010
Title: Dose escalating study of crenolanib besylate in advanced GITS patients with PDGFRA D842V activating mutations
Authors: Margaret von Mehren, Eric Daniel Tetzlaff, Meghan Macaraeg, Jeremy Davis, Vartika Agarwal, Abhijit Ramachandran, Michael C. Heinrich
Presenter: Dr. Margaret von Mehren
Session: Sarcoma
Date: Monday, June 6, 2016
Time: 3:00 - 4:15 PM CST
Location: Hall A, S406
Poster Board: #136
About Arog Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Arog Pharmaceuticals is a private, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that has leveraged its platform of benzimidazole derivatives to develop a robust drug pipeline of orally available, potent, and selective small molecule type I kinase inhibitors. Arog is poised to enroll patients in pivotal, randomized Phase III trials of its lead molecule, crenolanib. In addition to the four clinical trials it has already completed, Arog is also engaged in three ongoing Phase II clinical trials. For more information, please visit the company’s website, http://www.arogpharma.com.
About Crenolanib
Arog’s lead molecule, crenolanib, is currently being clinically investigated as a treatment for multiple cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), glioma, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is an orally bioavailable benzimidazole type I kinase inhibitor that selectively and potently inhibits signaling of wild-type and mutant isoforms of class III receptor tyrosine kinases FLT3 and PDGFRα/β. This molecule has an established record of patient safety and has been used to treat over 250 patients from around the world.
About FLT3
FLT-3 is a class III receptor tyrosine kinase, and its signaling is considered important for the normal development of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells. The FLT-3 gene is one of the most frequently mutated genes (~35%) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). One such mutation, internal tandem duplications of FLT-3 (FLT3-ITD), is a prognostic indicator associated with adverse disease outcome.
About PDGFRα/β
Platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFR) α and β are cell surface tyrosine kinase receptors and are important factors regulating cell proliferation and cell development, as well as several diseases, including cancers like brain tumors and sarcomas. In clinical tests, crenolanib has been shown to inhibit both PDGFR α and β phosphorylation, thus preventing downstream signaling.