Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. announced the SWOG Cancer Research Network's PACES S0820 Phase III trial passed a single planned futility analysis and will continue. The trial entitled: "A Double Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Eflornithine and Sulindac to Prevent Recurrence of High Risk Adenomas and Second Primary Colorectal Cancers in Patients With Stage 0-III Colon or rectal cancer, Phase III - Preventing Adenomas of the Colon With Eflornithine and sulindac (PACES)" is designed to evaluate the combination of eflornithine and sulINDac in reducing a three-year event rate of adenomas and second primary colorectal cancers in patients previously treated for Stages 0 through III colorectal cancer or rectal cancer. The pipeline consists of assets currently in clinical trials with an initial focus on familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer, neoadjuvant pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer prevention and ovarian cancer.

The combined development programs have a steady cadence of anticipated catalysts with programs ranging from pre-clinical to registration studies.Ivospemin is a proprietary polyamine analogue designed to induce polyamine metabolic inhibition (PMI) by exploiting an observed high affinity of the compound for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and other tumors. It has shown signals of tumor growth inhibition in clinical studies of metastatic pancreatic cancer patients, demonstrating a median overall survival (OS) of 14.6 months and an objective response rate (ORR) of 48%, both exceeding what is typical for the standard of care of gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel suggesting potential complementary activity with the existing FDA-approved standard chemotherapy regimen. In data evaluated from clinical studies to date, ivospemin has not shown exacerbation of bone marrow suppression and peripheral neuropathy, which can be chemotherapy-related adverse events.