Geron Corporation Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-05-30 07:45:22.0

Tags: Geron Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of [Glen Gechlik] with Needham & Co. Please proceed.

Glen Gechlik- Needham & Co.

[Technical Difficulty] any further follow-up on the stem cell program and when the IND might be expected.

Tom Okarma

Well fair question. But again, we will stick to our statements that we're not giving any guidance on the status of that IND, whether or not it's been filed and what's going on, basically to allow the process to run its uninhibited course.

Glen Gechlik- Needham & Co.

That's very, very fair. Second question, there'll be an ASCO presentation on solid tumors for Geron 163L?

Tom Okarma

Yes.

Glen Gechlik - Needham & Co.

I take it that won't have a maximum dose but will have information on how the patients are doing?

Tom Okarma

Right. I mean the main issue there is PK and tolerability. We, for obvious reasons, began the solid tumor Phase I in subjects who have been heavily pretreated and have failed in many cases over a dozen prior courses of chemotherapy. And the world of human telomerase biology in cancer is completely unexplored. We are really writing the book here. And so it was important that we fully understand how to use this drug as a single agent in patients who are in extremis with regard to prior chemotherapy. And that's really the lesson that we are learning in that trial.

So you're correct. We will have a presentation at ASCO on that solid tumor trial, and there'll be a second presentation on an ex vivo study that actually may lead to a clinical trial in Europe on T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia, which is an unusual opportunity in that this is a disease in which the telomeres of the malignant cells are extraordinarily short. And what the data will show is an extremely rapid lysis of the cells by our telomerase inhibitor in vitro. And that will probably lead to a clinical study in Europe perhaps next year.

Glen Gechlik - Needham & Co.

Thank you very much.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Brozak with WBB Securities. Please proceed.

Steve Brozak- WBB Securities

Hey, gentlemen. Good morning. Let's go back in history here because you've given some color on the telomerase bladder assay system. As far as the platform goes, because you've got a long history, more than ten years of finding telomerase is a wonderful marker for cancer, would you, given the history, at the background and all the research that has been done on the bladder side, would you then look at using the platform because it's ubiquitous as far as detection of other cancers as far as your IP has been filed in the past. What are your thoughts on that?

 

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