Dallas, Texas 01/15/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA), the $442 million development stage bio-tech firm announced after close of business yesterday that it has launched the clinical trial for its target drug “GANNET53”. These randomized tests would be conducted across pan-Europe and would be evaluating the efficacy of the drug combination of ganetespib (Synta’s lead anti-cancer target drug) and paclitaxel against that of paclitaxel as a standalone treatment. These tests are being administered on close to 200 patients suffering from “platinum-resistant ovarian cancer”.
Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA) has contracted testing centres in “Austria, Belgium, France, and Germany” for facilitating these clinical trials and has set June 2014 as deadline for commencing enrolment of patients to the trial.
Commenting about the commencement of the randomized test, Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA) President and CEO, Safi R. Bahcall, Ph.D., has been quoted as saying, “The selection of ganetespib for the GANNET53 program and the European Commission support are exciting steps in advancing both the science and clinical potential of ganetespib. The identification and evaluation of the connection between p53 mutation status and the potential role for Hsp90 inhibition, may have important implications not only for patients with ovarian cancer, but in other tumor types too.” It is appropriate to note at this juncture that the same target drug ganetespib has also been tested as part of phase 3 clinical trials to treat lung cancer caused by non-small cells.
Over the past year, Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ:SNTA) has set up close to 100 academic tests to examine the science behind their target drug ganetespib and identify all the potential applications this drug compound could be leveraged for.
The stock of the bio tech firm posted a 3.7 percent increase in its market valuation yesterday, which adds to the 33 percent increase it has posted in the past one month of trading.