28 March 2019 - - Israeli clinical stage drug development company Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd.'s (NYSE MKT: CANF) (TASE: CFBI) Phase II advanced liver cancer study did not achieve its primary end point of overall survival in the whole population, the company said.

At the same time, superiority in overall survival was found in the largest study subpopulation of CPB7 and in secondary end points in the whole population, including objective response measured by CT or MRI. These data strongly support the progression into Phase III.

Advanced liver cancer in patients with underlying cirrhosis is categorised into three subclasses based on the severity of cirrhosis, starting with Child Pugh A, mostly treated with Nexavar and progressing to Child Pugh B and Child Pugh C, for which there are no drugs on market with proven efficacy.

In the study, the company enrolled only patients with CPB stage liver cancer with CBP stage patients being further divided into three categories of increasing severity, namely CPB7, CPB8, and CPB9.

These patients already failed first line Nexavar and were treated with Namodenoson, or placebo, as a second line treatment, twice daily, using a 2: 1 randomisation.

The primary endpoint of the study was defined as the length of time the patients lived after receiving treatment or median overall survival.

Secondary endpoints included safety, the length of time tumors did not grow after treatment, or progression free survival, the percent of patients whose tumors partially shrank after treatment, or partial response, and the percent of patients who were PR or stable, or disease control rate.

Findings from the study include that, for the whole population, median OS was 4.1 months for Namodenoson vs. 4.3 months for placebo (HR: 0.82).

Pre-planned subpopulation analysis of the CPB7 patients, revealed that the Namodenoson treated group showed median overall survival of 6.8 months vs 4.3 months in placebo [HR: 0.77 (95% CI 0.49-1.40)]. Similarly, for this subgroup of patients, PFS was 3.5 months for the Namodenoson treated group vs 1.9 (HR: 0.87) in the placebo group.

Objective response in the whole patient population measured by CT or MRI, demonstrated that 9% treated by Namodenoson achieved PR vs 0% in the placebo group.

Consistent with safety results from previously completed clinical trials, Namodenoson was generally well-tolerated, with no treated patients being withdrawn for toxicity and no cases of treatment-related deaths.

DCR was 18.0% in the Namodenoson group vs 7.1% in the placebo group (p=0.013) after four months of treatment.

32.0% of patients treated with Namodenoson completed at least 12 months of treatment vs 14.3% who were treated with placebo (p=0.058).

Two patients in the Namodenoson group are ongoing after 19 and 28 months of treatment, respectively. These patients will continue to receive Namodenoson.

All nine patients with CBP9 cirrhosis, the most severe grade allowed into the trial, were randomly assigned to the Namodenoson treatment group (OS=3.5 months), a fact which has distorted the results in the whole population.

Namodenoson is a small orally bioavailable drug that binds with high affinity and selectivity to the A3 adenosine receptor. Namodenoson is being evaluated in Phase II trials for two indications, as a second line treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma, and as a treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

A3AR is highly expressed in diseased cells whereas low expression is found in normal cells. This differential effect accounts for the excellent safety profile of the drug.

Can-Fite BioPharma is a clinical stage drug development company with a platform technology that is designed to address markets in the treatment of cancer, inflammatory disease and sexual dysfunction.

The company's lead drug candidate, Piclidenoson, is currently in Phase III trials for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

Can-Fite's liver cancer drug, Namodenoson, recently completed a Phase II trial for hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, and is in a Phase II trial for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Namodenoson has been granted Orphan Drug Designation in the US and Europe and Fast Track Designation as a second line treatment for HCC by the US Food and Drug Administration. Namodenoson has also shown proof of concept to potentially treat other cancers including colon, prostate, and melanoma.

CF602, the company's third drug candidate, has shown efficacy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction in preclinical studies and the company is investigating additional compounds, targeting A3AR, for the treatment of sexual dysfunction.

These drugs have an excellent safety profile with experience in over 1,000 patients in clinical studies to date.