Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its inspection of the facility at NerPharMa (a pharmaceutical manufacturing company belonging to Nerviano Medical Sciences Srl, in Nerviano, Italy), which manufactures the CTI's drug pixantrone and has found the site in compliance and acceptable for continued manufacturing of the drug product. CTI has a New Drug Application (NDA) under review at the FDA for pixantrone to treat relapsed/refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. As previously announced, the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) will review the NDA for pixantrone on March 22, 2010 and the FDA is expected to make a final decision on approval by April 23, 2010.

"FDA approval of the NerPharMa facility to manufacture our drug product is a major milestone in the drug approval process and we are pleased that our manufacturing partner is prepared to provide commercial supplies when pixantrone is approved," said Craig W. Philips, president of CTI.

Nerviano Medical Sciences is the largest pharmaceutical R&D facility in Italy and one of the largest oncology-focused, integrated discovery and development companies in Europe.

Headquartered in Seattle, CTI is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing an integrated portfolio of oncology products aimed at making cancer more treatable.