Geron Announces IMerge Phase 3 Presentations at ASH Highlighting Significant Durability of Transfusion Independence and Breadth of Effect Across MDS Subgroups with Imetelstat in Lower Risk MDS

Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, today announced presentations of data from its IMerge Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating first-in-class investigational telomerase inhibitor imetelstat in patients with lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), as well as population analysis of claims data in lower risk MDS. The data were presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, taking place from December 9-12, 2023, in San Diego, CA and virtually as well as published online in Blood.

“These latest analyses from IMerge Phase 3 presented at ASH contribute to a growing body of data from the trial, including a recent publication in The Lancet, which continue to give us confidence in what we believe is a meaningful clinical benefit with imetelstat in these lower risk MDS patients,” said Faye Feller, M.D., Executive Vice President, Geron’s Chief Medical Officer. “If approved, we believe that the significant improvement in red blood cell transfusion independence possible with imetelstat could provide an important new treatment option for many lower risk MDS patients who suffer from iron overload and low quality of life associated with transfusion dependence.”

“As we continue to see additional analyses from IMerge Phase 3, such as these latest presentations at ASH, the clinical attributes of imetelstat continue to be differentiated, particularly high RBC-TI response rate, durability of response and the consistency of effect across MDS subgroups that have historically been very difficult to treat,” said Amer Methqal Zeidan, MBBS MHS, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Hematology) and director of hematology Early Therapy Research at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, who is an IMerge lead investigator. “Additionally, the safety profile was well-characterized, with Grade 3/4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia that were generally transient, reversible to Grade 2 or less, and clinically manageable, and most importantly, had few clinical consequences and did not affect the efficacy of imetelstat.”

Below are the highlights of the 6 company-sponsored abstracts:

“Efficacy of Imetelstat in Achieving Red Blood Cell Transfusion Independence Across Different Risk Subgroups in Patients With Lower-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes Relapsed/Refractory to Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents in IMerge Phase 3 Study”

This oral presentation provides a subgroup analysis from IMerge Phase 3 evaluating RBC-transfusion independence (RBC-TI) rates in patients treated with imetelstat vs. placebo across different risk subgroups as defined by International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS), revised IPSS (IPSS-R) or IPSS molecular (IPSS-M) risk profiles. The results showed that imetelstat consistently had higher RBC-TI response rates than placebo across these different risk subgroups. Overall, durable 24-week and 1-year RBC-TI responses were observed with imetelstat in all lower- and higher-risk subgroups. Reclassifying patients by IPSS-M revealed that one-third of the patients (4/12) identified as higher-risk IPSS-M derived 8-week RBC-TI benefit whereas higher-risk subgroups receiving placebo failed to achieve long-term RBC-TI, regardless of the risk classification scheme used.