Active Biotech’s TASQ prostate cancer project to be presented at ASCO

Lund, Sweden - Active Biotech AB:s (NASDAQ OMX Nordic:ACTI) prostate cancer project TASQ has been selected for oral presentation at the scientific conference 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in Chicago, June 4-8, 2010.



The presentation will include the data from a recently concluded randomized placebo-controlled double blinded clinical Phase II study of tasquinimod (TASQ), an oral immunomodulatory and antiangiogenic agent. Top line data presented in December 2009 showed that TASQ significantly slowed the rate of disease progression and improved progression free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), thus meeting the primary endpoint of the study.



The speech will be given by Coordinating investigator Roberto Pili, Professor of Oncology and Co-Leader of the Genitourinary Program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.



The clinical TASQ Phase II study being presented at ASCO:

#4510 oral abstract session on June 6, 11:45 am EDT.

A randomized multicenter international phase II study of tasquinimod in chemotherapy naïve patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) R. Pili, M. Häggman, W.M. Stadler, J.R. Gingrich, V. Assikis, A. Björk, G. Forsberg, M.A. Carducci, A.J. Armstrong.

For more detailed information, please see www.asco.org.

About TASQ

The development of TASQ is principally focused on the treatment of prostate cancer. TASQ is an antiangiogenic compound, meaning that it cuts off the supply of nutrients to the tumor but it does not belong to the most frequently occurring group of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. In September 2009, the results from the Phase I trial of TASQ were published in the British Journal of Cancer. The results showed that long-term continuous oral administration of TASQ seems to be safe and that TASQ might delay disease progression.

It was announced in December 2009 that the primary endpoint of the Phase II clinical study, to show a higher fraction of patients with no disease progression during the six-month period of treatment using TASQ, had been reached. The percentage of patients with disease progression during the six-month period was 43% for patients treated with TASQ compared with 67% for placebo treated patients. The median progression-free survival was 24.7 weeks for the TASQ group, compared with 12.9 weeks (p=0.0001) for the placebo group.



About Active Biotech

Active Biotech AB (NASDAQ OMX NORDIC: ACTI) is a biotechnology company with focus on autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and cancer. Projects in pivotal phase are laquinimod, an orally administered small molecule with unique immunomodulatory properties for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, as well as ANYARA for use in cancer targeted therapy, primarily of renal cancer. Further key projects in clinical development comprise the three orally administered compounds TASQ for prostate cancer, 57-57 for SLE and RhuDex(TM) for RA. Please visit www.activebiotech.com for more information.