Kazia Doses First Patient In Phase 2 PNOC035 Study Of Paxalisib In Pediatric Brain Cancer; Stock Up

Kazia Therapeutics says it has dosed its first patient in Arm A of PNOC035, a phase 2 platform study testing paxalisib with gemcitabine for patients aged 1 to 39 with recurrent or progressive atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT), an aggressive pediatric brain cancer. The study is run through the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC). In Arm A, patients receive oral, once-daily paxalisib plus intravenous gemcitabine on Days 1, 8 and 15 of a 28-day cycle. Kazia reports that in an orthotopic preclinical model, the combination increased median survival nearly fourfold from 22 to 82.5 days (p=0.0001). Paxalisib has FDA Orphan Drug and Rare Pediatric Disease designations for AT/RT. The stock closed Tuesday at $12.01.