Alder Biopharmaceuticals, the Bothell, WA-based developer of targeted antibody drugs, said today that its lead drug candidate was found to be safe and reduce severe fatigue of patients in an early-stage study of patients with advanced cancer. The trial enrolled nine patients who got ALD518, an antibody that’s designed to block an inflammatory protein called IL-6. The preliminary results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, FL. The drug is now being tested in a larger study of 124 cancer patients, which is expected to complete enrollment by the end of 2009.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
View all posts by Luke Timmerman
