Halozyme Therapeutics Inc (HALO)

[friendofthedevil]

nice find, thanks.

Von Hoff is lead principal investigator of 202.


Halozyme Initiates Randomized Phase 2 Trial of PEGPH20 in Pancreatic Cancer

04/23/2013



SAN DIEGO, April 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HALO) today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 multicenter, randomized clinical trial evaluating PEGPH20, a proprietary, investigational drug, as a first-line therapy for patients with stage IV metastatic pancreatic cancer. Approximately 124 patients will participate in the study and receive gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel either with or without PEGPH20. The primary outcome will be to measure progression-free survival between patients administered PEGPH20 to those who are not.


"Pancreatic cancer is an extremely difficult disease to treat, in part because of a hyaluronan-rich matrix which shields these tumors against chemotherapy," said Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P., lead principal investigator of the study and Chief Scientific Officer for Scottsdale Healthcare's Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials and Physician-In-Chief for the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). "Ongoing translational studies indicate that PEGPH20 may deplete this matrix component from pancreatic tumors and alter the tumor environment in a way that renders these cancers more vulnerable to therapy."