Biopharmaceutical company Æterna Zentaris Inc. (AEZS, AEZ) said Monday results presented by its partner Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX) shows a significant improvement in both time to tumor progression as well as overall survival.
Cathy Eng, Associate Medical Director for Colorectal Cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, commenting on the data said, "This randomized Phase 2 trial demonstrates the very promising activity of perifosine (an oral AKT pathway inhibitor) for response, PFS, and OS in the care of previously treated, advanced colorectal cancer. Akt is downstream from the EGFR receptor and may have a role also in KRAS mutant tumor types. Preclinical data suggest that the Akt pathway inhibitors may be of benefit not only with chemotherapy but also in combination with other biologic agents. Perifosine is definitely worthy of further analysis and should be pursued in a Phase 3 trial in this indication."
Keryx presented updated results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of perifosine in combination with capecitabine as a treatment for advanced, metastatic colon cancer at American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Keryx is Æterna Zentaris' partner and licensee for perifosine in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In South Korea, the drug is out-licensed to Handok. For the rest of the world, Æterna Zentaris retains its rights.
In the study, heavily pre-treated patients with second- or third-line metastatic colon cancer were randomized to receive capecitabine at 825 mg/m2 BID on days 1 - 14 every 21 days plus either perifosine or placebo at 50 mg daily. Of the 38 patients enrolled, two people receiving placebo and capecitabine arm were unevaluable due to toxicity and another patient receiving placebo and capecitabine was unevaluable due to a new malignancy on day 6, the company said. All patients in the perifosine and capecitabine arm were evaluable for response.
The study showed that patients receiving perifosine in combination with capecitabine indicated greater than 60% improvement in overall survival of 15.3 months, more than double the median Time to Progression or 18 weeks, and almost a doubling of the percentage of patients achieving Stable disease or better.
While patients receiving capecitabine plus placebo showed a ORR or Overall Response Rate of 7%, the ORR of patients receiving perifosine in combination with capecitabine was 20%. The general adverse events reported in the patients receiving the drug was anemia and hand-foot syndrome.
Juergen Engel, President and CEO at Æterna Zentaris said, "This is a very positive development to begin the Year 2010. We now have a lot of options to create value for our shareholders with our late-stage compounds in oncology, perifosine and AEZS-108, as well as in endocrinology with AEZS-130, thanks to the successful collaboration with our partner Keryx and the continuous interest of dedicated investigators. We now look forward to the further development of perifosine."
AEZS is currently trading at $0.956, up $0.026 or 2.81%, on the Nasdaq. KERX is currently trading at $2.97, up $0.23 or 8.39%, on the Nasdaq. AEZ is currently trading at C$1.02, up C$0.07 or 7.37%, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.