Safety and Pharmacokinetic Study of Escalating Multiple Doses of an Iron Chelator in Patients With Iron Overload

Inclusion Criteria: * At least 18 years old * Transfusion dependent (at least 8 transfusions per year) with transfusional iron overload needing treatment with deperoxamine, deferasirox or deperiprone. * Willing to discontinue current iron chelation therapy for 2-5 days prior to enrollment and for a total of up to 3 weeks * Willing to fast after midnight prior to each dose * Serum ferritin greater than 400ng/ml * Liver iron concentration greater than or equal to 1.5 mg iron. (determined by MRI or SQUID within 12 months prior to enrollment) * Cardiac iron greater than or equal to 12 milliseconds (determined by MRI t2\* within 18 months prior to enrollment) * Mean of last 3 pre-transfusion hemoglobin values must be greater than or equal to 7.5 g/dl * Agrees to use approved contraception from Screening and until 30 days after last administration of study drug. Abstinence OK. Exclusion Criteria: * Principal Investigator considers patient unfit for study after conducting a medical review, physical examination and other screening assessments. * Non-elective hospitalization with past 30 days * Evidence of clinically relevant oral, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, hepatic, renal, endocrine, pulmonary, neurologic, psychiatric or skin disorder. * Evidence of significant renal insufficiency; serum creatine above upper limit of normal or proteinuria greater than 2 gm per day or calculated creatinine clearance of less than or equal to 60ml/min * Platelet count below 150,000,000/ml and/or absolute neutrophil count less then 1500/mm3 * Alkaline phosphatase or AST greater than 5 times the upper limit of normal or ALT greater than 4 times the upper limit of normal * Female patients who are pregnant or lactating * Use of any investigational agent within the last 30 days