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NEW YORK, June 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BeyondSpring Inc. (NASDAQ: BYSI) (“BeyondSpring” or the “Company”), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on using a groundbreaking technology platform for drug discovery and developing innovative therapies to improve clinical outcomes for patients with high unmet medical needs, today announced new data from a Phase 1 investigator initiated study highlighting a reduction in chemotherapy-induced infectious neutropenic fever with lead asset Plinabulin in combination with pegfilgrastim in multiple myeloma (MM) patients who underwent autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHCT) and received a high dose of melphalan, a type of chemotherapy and one of the most active treatments for MM (NCT05130827). BeyondSpring and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) presented the data at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
Between January 2022 and February 2023, 15 patients with a median age of 64 received Plinabulin after a high dose of melphalan. One dose of 40mg of Plinabulin was given to patients via IV infusion one to three hours after stem cell infusion on Day 0, and 6mg of pegfilgrastim was given on Day 1.
The Plinabulin and pegfilgrastim combination appears well tolerated without additional major toxicities post AHCT. Although the combination did not decrease days of severe neutropenia compared with historical data of pegfilgrastim alone, the addition of Plinabulin potentially decreased other clinical consequences:
Reduced rate of infection-related neutropenic fever: Out of 15 patients, 7 had no fevers and 1 had a true neutropenic fever;
Reduced red blood cell (RBC) transfusion: Median of zero RBC transfusion per patient with the use of Plinabulin and pegfilgrastim;
Reduced platelet transfusion: Median of two platelet transfusions per patient with the combination.
“The Plinabulin-pegfilgrastim combination represents a new potential supportive care for MM patients undergoing AHCT. From this pilot study, we saw a trend in the combination in reducing infectious neutropenic fevers and RBC and platelet transfusion requirements compared to historical expectations, which are clinically important benefits,” said Dr. Gunjan Shah, MD, MS, Assistant Attending Physician at MSK and Principal Investigator of the trial.