Celator Pharmaceuticals See-Saws In Volatile Session

Shares of Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: CPXX) were highly volatile on Monday after the company detailed positive data for its lead product candidate, VYXEOS, during an industry conference.

Shares of Celator opened for trading at $15.57 on Monday and quickly surged to a 52-week high of $17.40. However, the stock quickly reversed course and was trading at $13.65, down nearly 9 percent early Monday afternoon.

Celator management delivered a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in New Orleans. The presentation was based on research conducted in the laboratory of Jeffrey Tyner, Ph.D. at Oregon Health & Science University and examined the ex vivo sensitivity of AML cells derived from newly diagnosed patients to VYXEOS.

Management detailed that the profile of ex vivo AML blast sensitity to its VYXEOS is identifical to the efficacy proifle observed clinically and may provide a means to identify specific AML patient genotypes that could benefit most from the company's therapy.

"A notable result from this research was the observation that AML cells exhibiting the FLT3-ITD mutation were approximately five times more sensitive to VYXEOS than AML cells with normal FLT3," the company said in its press release. "In addition, there was evidence that increased sensitivity to VYXEOS is associated with increased uptake of the drug-laden liposomes by leukemia cells."

"VYXEOS continues to deliver positive efficacy read-outs," said Lawrence Mayer, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer at Celator. "The encouraging activity of VYXEOS against AML cells harboring the FLT3-ITD mutant phenotype opens exciting opportunities to test VYXEOS in this AML patient population. We will submit data from patients exhibiting this mutation, who were treated in the recently completed Phase 3 trial, to an upcoming medical conference."