CTI BioPharma’s Pacritinib Meets One Co-Primary Endpoint, Just Misses Another, In PERSIST-2

CTI BioPharma Corp. has been able to analyze top-line efficacy results from around a third of patients with myelofibrosis and thrombocytopenia enrolled in the PERSIST-2 Phase III study, treated before the FDA-imposed clinical hold came into effect in February, that show pacritinib met one of the co-primary endpoints of the study, and narrowly missed meeting the second.

The analysis gives some encouragement to the Seattle, Washington-based company that has been under a cloud since the FDA issued a full clinical hold on pacritinib, an investigational oral JAK2/FLT3 inhibitor, in February 2016 because of concerns about excess mortality and other adverse events, including intracranial