BeyondSpring Inc. announced data from a poster presentation at the 19th International Myeloma Society Annual Meeting being held August 25-27, 2022, in Los Angeles, California. This is an open label, investigator-initiated study (NCT05130827 [2]) conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) that is evaluating the reduction in neutropenia burden with lead asset plinabulin in combination with pegfilgrastim in multiple myeloma (MM) patients who have undergone autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHCT) and have received a high dose of melphalan, a type of chemotherapy. To date, plinabulin appears well tolerated, and preliminary data show that only one out of the 10 patients enrolled (10%) had non-engraftment related neutropenic fevers or febrile neutropenia (FN) with plinabulin and pegfilgrastim, compared to a historical number of 60% of FN with standard of care.

Enrollment is ongoing, and full trial results will be presented at a later date. In this pilot study, patients with MM are treated with a single dose of melphalan and undergo AHCT. Patients receive a plinabulin 40 mg fixed dose IV infusion, and on day +1, pegfilgrastim 6 mg is administered per standard of care.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate neutropenia burden, safety, tolerability, neutrophil and platelet engraftment rate, disease response, progression free survival, overall survival and patient reported outcome (PRO) assessment of symptom burden.