Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CNAT)

[lorema]

A drug in clinical trials for liver diseases by a San Diego biotech company may be useful in treating acute myeloid leukemia, according to research published this week.

The drug, emricasan, was tested in combination with another drug also in testing, birinapant. The study, performed in mice and human cancer cell cultures, demonstrated that the combo was more effective at killing the leukemic cells than birinapant alone.

A paper on the study was published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Paul G. Ekert and John Silke were the paper's senior authors and the first author was Gabriela Brumatti. All are of the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It can be found at http://j.mp/emribiri.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/biotech/sdut-emricasan-liver-cancer-2016may19-story.html