Dr. Raza

[biopearl]

As most know, Dr. Raza is the second author on the MDS abstract to be presented Monday at ASH. She will be representing the authors at an investor meeting the following week in NYC (see Geron PR) to discuss the abstract findings which as we have discussed are quite remarkable in a disease that has not had any new therapeutic approaches for 10 years. If you haven't seen Dr. Raza 2014 youtube TedX, it is worth a watch. She is poised, highly intelligent and has a very strong background (Professor of Medicine and Director of MDS program at Columbia). Her TedX presentation has an emotional underpinning that helps explain her strong drive to find better treatments for this disease. I think she will represent Geron and Imetelstat in a very professional manner. I still find the silence on MF interesting with only one nonclinical abstract at ASH and think an FDA surprise could be in the offing. Best wishes, bp

[Fishermangents]

Thanks, bio, for bringing this excellent doctor to the attention of our community. We have an acknowledged MDS expert here, a Dr.Tefferi II. Her findings are important to patients, doctors and investors alike, so is her advocacy.

[biopearl]

Fish, you might want to link the Dr. Raza TedX talk. Next Tuesday's presentation should be interesting. Even though the TI bar is high, a look at HI and transfusion reduction may translate into an improvement in prognosis as well. So far I am unaware of any disease modifying therapies. In theory by targeting the malignant clone Imetelstat may provide some hope here. The risk of hemochromatosis and iron overload is directly tied to transfusion requirement. bp

[Fishermangents]

Here the link to Dr.Raza on TedX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07rgtBzN4Qo

[biopearl]

Fish, that should read "any other disease modifying therapies". Sorry

[PEDMAC2000]

I saw the Ted talk and she does seem like a brilliant person
im excited to hear her take on Imetelstat

why do you think we cant seem to break 2 pps with all this good news on the MDS trial?

is it because options expire tomo? seems to me the conference date change from the 11 to the 19 th .. did these options players a favor... : :

[Fishermangents]

Pedmac, these are difficult questions to answer without getting into a lot of assumptions and speculations. I believe that Dr. Rasa is an important advocate. She has an international reputation regarding MDS. She will also speak on the Geron investors conference on December 19th at 8:30 a.m. ET. I also believe that the news has been positive so far. Obviously we need more evidence of success in order to convince the market. The long history of Geron not delivering a marketable product doesn't help. I have seen that argument many times in articles and on SA. It also seems (e.g. from the 10-Q) that JnJ's continuation decision is more depending from IMbark than from IMerge. Investors want to get rid of various uncertainties and it seems that a lot of hard facts are needed for that. We only can read the tea leaves. So far my interpretation is still positive, otherwise I would have left this stock already some time ago.

[Fishermangents]

DDD from Yahoo MB found this about Dr.Raza:

Dr. Arza (speech Oct 2016):
'I’m happy to talk about all these novel clinical trials. One of these is something I wanted to explain. This very exciting approach. So, every chromosome on its end have these areas called telomeres and when a normal cell divides into two it makes this telomere shortens each time that happens we can block the… So, telomere inhibitors is just an inhibitor of this enzyme which was going to prevent the shortening of the telomere and that drug is called Imetelstat and this Imetelstat was given to all types of solid tumors with zero response – zero, but when it is given to patients with myeloid malignancies 80 percent with essential thrombocythemia, 36 percent with myelofibrosis, 40 percent with lower risk MDS and RARS had a response. So, you see treatment of solid tumors very different than treatment of liquid tumors. That’s one very important lesson here. We have an ongoing trial with this and they just completed the first phase. We are waiting for the phase two to… the second phase of the phase three trial to open.'

I will look up the link to the speech and the slide deck she used.

[Fishermangents]

Her a nice comment from Hoosier (SA) about Dr.Raza:

"The video link is an absolute must watch and sets the table for what will be a coming out for Geron in MDS. The personal attachment and lifelong drive that Dr Raza will present will be more than we could hope for from Dr Scarlett. I now know why the date change and venue change. Dr Peter Lebowitz has shared the need for earlier intervention into these hematological diseases before they progress into the final stages of cancer that are so very hard to intervene.

The curtain is just about to be drawn open for what may be a paradigm shift in the treatment of MDS. An earlier intervention into these cancers will set the future for longer lifes with disease altering treatment of Imet. I fully anticipate a very informative and enlightening presentation from Dr Raza with a compassion for the patient with a personal drive for a cure for those that touched by these diseases."

SA, 14 December 2017

[Fishermangents]

I think this is interesting enough to quote here:

'Once the drug gets approved, then everybody will be using this upfront. It is not like we happily use lenalidomide or HMA's in that group'.
And:
'My personal experience with the drug has not been intense myelosuppression at all. It's reversible, manageable. It is something we see with HMA's, something we see with lenalidomide. In fact, to me it's less than with some of those agents.'

She says this in the Q&A of the Geron 19 December 2017 telco.
Link to this quote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZASbfsJBHp4