Pharmacyclics begins phase-one trials

Pharmacyclics has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administrationto begin phase-one clinical trials to investigate the safety andutility of its gadolinium-texaphyrin agent for MRI contrast andradiation therapy applications.

Gadolinium-texaphyrin is an expanded porphyrin compound thatdiffers from current extracellular contrast media in that it hasbeen shown to enter cancer cells selectively, according to theSunnyvale, CA, company.

Gadolinium-texaphyrin is the second Pharmacyclics MRI agentto enter human clinical studies and the first agent based on thecompany's texaphyrin technology. Another Pharmacyclics agent,Gadolite, is well into phase-three clinical studies, the companysaid.