Geron Reports Ten Imetelstat Presentations at American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting

Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, today announced that four oral presentations and six poster presentations containing clinical data and analyses related to imetelstat, the Company’s first-in-class telomerase inhibitor, were presented at the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. The presentations are available at www.geron.com/r-d/publications.

“Our imetelstat presentations at this year’s ASH provide strong support for our two registration-enabling Phase 3 clinical trials: IMerge, in lower risk MDS and IMpactMF, in refractory MF,” said Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., Geron’s Chief Medical Officer. “We believe the analyses and data from our Phase 2 IMerge and IMbark trials provide strong evidence of imetelstat’s disease-modifying activity, as well as clinical benefits of durable transfusion independence in MDS and improvement in overall survival in MF.”

Lower Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) – Oral Presentation

Title: Treatment with Imetelstat Provides Durable Transfusion Independence (TI) in Heavily Transfused Non-del(5q) Lower Risk MDS (LR-MDS) Relapsed/Refractory (R/R) to Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents (ESAs) (Abstract #658)

The oral presentation reported long-term efficacy, safety and biomarker data from 38 patients in the IMerge Phase 2 clinical trial, based on a February 4, 2020 cut-off date and a median follow-up of 24 months. Consistent with prior presentations, 42% of patients achieved >8-week red blood cell transfusion independence (RBC-TI) with a median duration of 20 months, which is the longest so far reported with any agent in relapsed/refractory non-del(5q) lower risk MDS. In addition, 29% of patients were transfusion free more than a year. Reduction in the SF3B1 mutation, one of the key mutations correlated with ineffective erythropoiesis in lower risk MDS, correlated with longer transfusion independence and shorter onset to achieve transfusion independence. These biomarker data together with the durability of transfusion independence provide evidence for the disease-modifying activity of imetelstat. These data were previously presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Congress in June.