ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP) terminates production of Palifosfamide

Northern, WI 03/27/2013 (avauncer) - ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP) announced the termination of the further development of Palifosfamide (ZIO-201). Palifosfamide is used to treat sarcoma, the metastatic soft tissue. The company cited the reason for discontinuation as that Palifosfamide’s late stage trial failed to meet the first line setting (i.e., PICASSO 3 study). It also failed to meet the end stage of progression-free survival (PFS).

As this piece of information got circulated, ZIOP stock price slid 59.45% in premarket in Tuesday’s (March 26, 2013) trading session.

The vital endpoint for the study of Palisfosfamide was to gain improvement in its progression-free survival, followed by an overall survival (OS) which was the ancillary endpoint for it. Failing which the company stated that it no longer expects to follow up on the overall survival from now on.

Other secondary or ancillary endpoints comprise assessments on quality of life, and also the safety and tolerability of Palifosfamide’s combination in the sarcoma patient’s population.

No sooner were the trail results were out did ZIOP decided to drop the futile development of Palisfosfamide any further. It rather has declared to focus and concentrate on developing and enhancing its programs on synthetic biology. Ad-RTS IL – 12 is the lead therapeutic candidate for the synthetic biology programs of ZIOP. Ad-RTS IL -12 is a DNA therapeutic which enables a controlled delivery of therapeutic interleukin -12 (IL -12). Inetrleukin -12 is a vital protein to trigger an immune and immediate response to cancer.