Cell Thera Tries Bait-and-Switch With Opaxio

SEATTLE -- (TheStreet) -- I'm often asked why I write so often -- and so negatively -- about Cell Therapeutics(CTIC). The simple answer is because the beleaguered drug company provides me with a steady supply of rich material with which to work!

Case in point: Monday night's press release, which is a classic yarn filled with obfuscation and lead burying. The major news, a huge setback for Cell Therapeutics, is that the company withdrew its European approval application for the lung cancer drug Opaxio.

For months, Cell Therapeutics' CEO Jim Bianco has been talking about the potential for Opaxio's European approval in lung cancer before the end of the year. The drug's European review became an even more central story line for Cell Therapeutics after the Food and Drug Administration decided to extend the review of the company's other cancer drug, pixantrone, to April 2010 from December 2009.

Opaxio, the lung cancer drug formerly known as Xyotax, is no more. That's bad news for Cell Therapeutics. But does the company just admit the setback to its shareholders in a direct, straightforward manner? Of course not! Instead Bianco & Co. applies a bright red shade of lipstick to the pig.

I'm referring to the headline of Monday's press release: "Pivotal Registration Trial of OPAXIO Maintenance Therapy in First-Line Ovarian Cancer Reaches Enrollment Milestone of 600 patients, Cell Therapeutics and the Gynecologic Oncology Group Discuss Potential for Early Interim Analysis."

Um. Excuse me, but that's really old news, like six-months-ago old news.