Marrow Drug Test

Every year about 12,000 patients worldwide undergo bone marrow transplants as treatment for advanced leukemia--an expensive procedure that often provides the only hope for survival.

About half these patients are likely to experience a painful and life-threatening complication called graft-versus-host disease. That happens when the bone marrow cells, taken from a relative or other carefully matched donor, react to the patient’s own tissue as if it was a foreign invader. Activated cells from the donated marrow go on the attack, causing a range of symptoms that can include sloughing of skin and general organ failure.

Standard treatment includes large doses of steroids. But that can bring its own complications, and it works only about half the time. And 85% of patients who do not respond to the steroids will die.

Abegenix of Fremont, Calif., may have a solution in an experimental drug called ABX-CBL. The substance is an antibody, mass-produced in mouse cells, that attacks the cells from the donated marrow that cause the reaction.

The company recently completed a study that found 11 out of 15 patients receiving higher doses of the drug benefited from the treatment. The company is designing a final test of the drug that must be completed before it can receive final Food and Drug Administration marketing approval.

An uncomplicated bone marrow transplant costs between $60,000 and $100,000. Graft-versus-host disease can add $250,000 to that price tag, said company President and Chief Executive R. Scott Greer.

“There is an opportunity here to save the health-care system some money,” Greer said.