Sonus speeds up phase 1 oncology trial

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., Sept. 14 - Sonus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. said Thursday that it will start the phase 1 study of its second oncology product candidate, Tocosol Camptothecin, this month.

The company's previous timeline for the launch of the trial - early in the fourth quarter of 2006 - has been changed and will now start "in a matter of weeks and days rather than months," chief executive officer and president Michael Martino announced at the ThinkEquity Partners conference in San Francisco.

The Bothell, Wash., biotechnology company's lead oncology drug candidate, Tocosol Paclitaxel, is in a phase 3 pivotal trial in metastatic breast cancer. The company said it expects to complete enrollment by the end of October, to file a New Drug Application by the end of 2007 and to obtain overall survival data by mid-to-late 2009.

In October 2005, Sonus entered into a licensing agreement with Schering AG for the development and commercialization of Tocosol Paclitaxel. The company has retained a co-promotion right in the United States.

"Our vision, by the end of 2007, is to have a lead drug with a New Drug Application file, a second drug move in from phase 1 trials to phase 2 trials and a third drug moving into the clinic and phase 1 trials," Martino said during the conference call.

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