Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Provides Year-End Clinical Update on...( SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO Calif. J...)

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNSS) today provided a clinical update on voreloxin, its novel investigational drug candidate currently being developed in Phase 2 trials for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and ovarian cancer. The clinical update coincides with the company's attendance at the 27th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

"2008 was an important year for Sunesis, as we have continued to advance the development of voreloxin in both AML and ovarian cancer. We believe voreloxin has the potential to be a first-in-class anti-cancer agent for treating these diseases and potentially other hematologic and solid tumors," said Daniel Swisher, Chief Executive Officer and President of Sunesis. "We completed enrollment of our Phase 2 platinum-resistant ovarian cancer study and both of our ongoing AML studies are enrolling well, with 45 AML patients enrolled in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone. In the first half of 2009, we anticipate reporting additional data from all three of our ongoing voreloxin studies. We remain on track to initiate a pivotal voreloxin study in AML by the end of this year."

Sunesis is providing an update on the progress of its voreloxin clinical trials as follows:

Phase 2 and 1b/2 Studies of Voreloxin in AML

Sunesis is evaluating single agent voreloxin in an ongoing Phase 2 trial, known as REVEAL-1, in newly diagnosed elderly AML patients unlikely to benefit from standard induction chemotherapy. Interim results recently presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) show that voreloxin induces complete remissions in these poor risk patients. At ASH, outcome for the 29 patients enrolled and treated with Schedule A, 72 mg/m2 of vo
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