Geron has been given verbal notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its application for imetelstat has been placed on full clinical hold, affecting all ongoing company-sponsored clinical trials. A full clinical hold is an order that the FDA issues to a trial sponsor to suspend an ongoing clinical trial or delay a proposed trial.
The clinical hold affects the remaining eight patients in the company’s Phase 2 study in essential thrombocythemia (ET) or polycythemia vera (PV) and the remaining two patients in the company’s Phase 2 study in multiple myeloma. Geron released a statement as well as a recording of a conference call to go over details.
This comes only a few months after Sanofi’s clinical trial was discontinued due toneurotoxicity issues.