Poniard Pharmaceuticals Reports Fourth Quarter and Year End 2008 Financial Results and Provides a Corpor...( - Conference Call Today at 5:00 p.m. ...),Health

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PARD), a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2008, and provided a corporate update.

"During the fourth quarter of 2008, we made significant progress toward our goal of developing picoplatin as an oncology platform compound by advancing our pivotal Phase 3 SPEAR (Study of Picoplatin Efficacy After Relapse) clinical trial for the treatment of small cell lung cancer, presenting data from our ongoing Phase 2 picoplatin studies in colorectal and prostate cancers, and securing a commercial manufacturer of picoplatin as a finished drug product," said Jerry McMahon, PhD., chairman and chief executive officer of Poniard. "We anticipate completing patient enrollment in our ongoing SPEAR Phase 3 clinical trial and initiating our New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year. Throughout 2009, we expect to make continued progress in all of our picoplatin clinical trials and to generate additional key data to support use of picoplatin in multiple tumor indications."

Recent Corporate Highlights

Picoplatin Clinical Development

• Prostate Cancer: In February 2009, Poniard presented updated efficacy and safety data from its ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of picoplatin in combination with docetaxel and prednisone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant (hormone-refractory) prostate cancer (CRPC) during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2009 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Efficacy results to date showed reductions in prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels of at least
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