Biotech Values

[iwfal]

GERN -

the company also measured JAK2 V617F mutation's allele burden (% of cells carrying the JAK2 V617F mutation).... 7 of 14 enrolled patients had the JAK2 mutation, and 86% (6 of 7) of these achieved partial molecular response (defined as 60-90% suppression of malignant clones carrying JAK2 V617F)

- in comparison, jakafi shows 14% of patients showing >20% decrease in JAK2 V617F allele burden (this is in myelofibrosis i believe, but I need to double check these numbers so take it with a grain of salt... also a sicker population in MF than in this ET trial)

You are correct that this comparison by GERN is not apples to apples - since the jakafi data was from a sicker population (one starting with a much higher jak allele burden - and note that the patients with the highest allele burdens show the least % reduction (e.g. the patient with the highest allele burden in the GERN ET trial showed the least % reduction))

Note that the closest comparable data for GERN's imetelstat vs jakafi is imetelstat in ET vs jakafi in PV - and at first glance that comparison too looks very favorable. (e.g. the mean reduction of jak2 allele burden for jakafi in PV was about 20% - but the least reduction of jak2 for imetelstat in ET was about 20%). But PV too is clearly a different disease since 95% of patients show jak2 mutation (with a median of 50-ish percent allele burden) vs a much lower percentage in ET.