Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company announced that 71 oral and poster presentations featuring Velcade (bortezomib) for Injection or the Company's oncology pipeline molecules will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to be held in Chicago, Illinois, from June 4 to 8, 2010. These data include five oral presentations on the use of Velcade based therapy across a spectrum of multiple myeloma treatment settings.
Additionally, Velcade is being highlighted in five presentations at the newly established, exclusive Trials in Progress session. This session will highlight abstracts on trial design and accepts a limited number of abstracts for all disease states.
First clinical data will be presented for two of the Company's novel pipeline compounds being investigated in solid tumours. Presentations include data on MLN9708, the first oral proteasome inhibitor; and TAK-701, an anti-hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) antibody. Phase-I data will also be presented for MLN8237, an oral, selective Aurora A kinase inhibitor. The first phase-II data will be presented on TAK-700, a selective 17,20 lyase inhibitor.
"Data being presented at this year's ASCO further demonstrate the effectiveness of Velcade as a backbone of therapy in a range of multiple myeloma patient populations and treatment settings," said Nancy Simonian, chief medical officer, Millennium. "Our expertise in oncology development, as demonstrated by the success of Velcade, has enabled us to quickly advance clinical development of our pipeline molecules in a variety of solid tumours. We're pleased to see the first clinical data presentations for two of our pipeline molecules, including our oral proteasome inhibitor."
Velcade is co-developed by Millennium and Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development, a unit of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development. Millennium is responsible for commercialization of Velcade in the US, Janssen-Cilag is responsible for commercialization in Europe and the rest of the world.