Allos Therapeutics Inc. (ALTH) said its experimental Hodgkin
lymphoma drug got orphan-drug designation from the European
Commission.
Shares were up 2.7% at $4.63 in opening trading. The stock is
down 31% this year.
Such status provides 10 years of market exclusivity and other
incentives if the product is approved in Europe. Regulators use
orphan-drug designations to encourage the development of treatments
for rare diseases. Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic
system, affects about 1.1 in 10,000 people in the European
Union.
Allos is also developing the drug pralatrexate to treat a
variety of cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer and
metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. It
received orphan-drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration earlier this year.
The company currently markets pralatrexate in the U.S. under the
name Folotyn as a treatment for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The
drug, Allos' first to hit the market, was approved by the FDA in
September 2009. As such, the company just began generating product
revenue late last year and hasn't been profitable.
-By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com