On September 23, 2024 Repare Therapeutics Inc. ("Repare" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: RPTX), a leading clinical-stage precision oncology company, reported new data on Friday highlighting the impact of alterations in FBXW7, PPP2R1A and CCNE1 in patients with metastatic ovarian and endometrial cancers based on an analysis in approximately 2,000 patients from Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network and Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Metastatic Events and Tropisms (Press release, Repare Therapeutics, SEP 23, 2024, View Source [SID1234646830]).

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The poster presentation was shared at the American Association of Cancer Research’s (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) 15th Annual Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium in Seattle, underscores inherent chemotherapy resistance and the lack of treatment options for metastatic gynecologic cancer patients with these biomarkers.

"Patients with recurrent ovarian and endometrial cancers are already at a disadvantage when it comes to treatment options," said Maria Koehler, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Repare. "These new data highlight the urgent need for innovative therapeutic approaches to address the specifically poor prognosis associated with FBXW7, PPP2R1A and CCNE1 alterations treated with standard of care-based chemotherapy. We look forward to reporting data from our MYTHIC dose expansion trial evaluating lunresertib in combination with camonsertib in patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers with these biomarkers in the fourth quarter of 2024."

Repare Therapeutics’ Phase 1 MYTHIC clinical trial (NCT04855656) is studying the combination of lunresertib, a first-in-class oral small molecule PKMYT1 inhibitor, and camonsertib, a potential best-in-class oral small molecule ATR inhibitor, in patients harboring lunresertib-sensitizing biomarkers (Lunre BM), including CCNE1 amplifications or mutations in FBXW7 or PPP2R1A. While CCNE1 amplifications occur in approximately 30% of platinum-resistant ovarian cancers,1-2 and are well established as a poor prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer,3-6 little is known about other Lunre BM in ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Ovarian Cancer:

The presence of Lunre BM (alterations in CCNE1, PPP2R1A, or FBXW7) in ovarian cancer patients (n=1,029) is linked to a substantially lower survival rate compared to those without these biomarkers, underscoring their prognostic significance:

Median overall survival (mOS) for patients with these biomarkers (Lunre BM+) is 26 months (95% CI, 18-38), compared to 36 months (95% CI, 30-43) for patients without these biomarkers (Lunre BM-; HR = 1.46 [95% CI, 1.14-1.87], p=0.003), a 28% decrease in mOS
Endometrial Cancer:

Endometrial cancer patients (n=895) with biomarkers CCNE1, PPP2R1A, and FBXW7 demonstrate poorer survival outcomes, which are influenced by their association with high-risk histologies and genetic alterations:

Median overall survival (mOS) for patients with these biomarkers (Lunre BM+) is 30 months (95% CI, 24-38), compared to 41 months (95% CI, 31-60) for patients without these biomarkers (Lunre BM-; HR = 1.29 [95% CI, 1.03-1.60], p=0.024), a 27% decrease in mOS
The presence of these biomarkers also correlates with high-risk histologies (uterine carcinosarcoma and uterine serous carcinoma) and p53 mutant genotypes, well known for adverse prognosis

On September 23, 2024 Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a biotechnology company focused on the development of emavusertib (CA-4948), an orally available, small molecule IRAK4 inhibitor, reported the 3rd Annual Symposium on IRAK4 in Cancer taking place virtually on September 26, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM E.T (Press release, Curis, SEP 23, 2024, View Source [SID1234646815]).

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Hosted by Dr. Eric S. Winer (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Dr. Grzegorz S. Nowakowski (Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center), this symposium will focus on IRAK4, an emerging target in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Experts will discuss the promise of IRAK4 inhibition in cancer, including current clinical studies of emavusertib and opportunities for future development.

Symposium presentations will include updated data for 10 evaluable R/R PCNSL patients as of the July 10, 2024 cutoff date. The Company continues to enroll patients in the PCNSL study and is on track to enroll 15-20 patients by year-end.

"As the leader in IRAK4 inhibition in oncology with emavusertib, we are honored to provide a forum for discussing the biology of the IRAK4 pathway and IRAK4 inhibition in the research and development of therapies to benefit patients living with cancer," said James Dentzer, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Curis.

Symposium co-chairs:

Eric Winer, MD, Clinical Director and Adult Leukemia Institute Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Grzegorz Nowakowski, MD, Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Division of Hematology, Deputy Director of Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center for Clinical Research and Vice-Chair of Division of Hematology
Joining our hosts will be the following speakers and participants:

Bently Doonan, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Florida College of Medicine
Andrés Ferreri, MD, Contract Professor of Oncology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele; Head of the Lymphoma Unit, I.R.C.C.S. Ospedale San Raffaele
Klaus Metzeler, MD, Professional of Translational Hematology, University of Leipzig
Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, Professor, Chief of Section of Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Deputy Chair of Translational Research and Fellowship Program Director Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Marina Konopleva, MD, PhD, Professor of the Department of Oncology, Professor of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, and Miriam Mandel Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Kian Lim, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Lakshmi Nayak, MD, Director of the Center for CNS Lymphoma Dana‑Farber Cancer Institute; Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Han Tun, MD, Hematologist, Internist, Oncologist, Departments of Hematology and Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center
To learn more about this free-to-attend symposium and register, please visit View Source

On September 23, 2024 Elevar Therapeutics, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of HLB Co., Ltd., reported the resubmission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its investigational drug rivoceranib, an oral VEGF-TKI, in combination with camrelizumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, as a first-line systemic treatment option for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) (Press release, Elevar Therapeutics, SEP 23, 2024, View Source [SID1234646816]).

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In May, the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) for the original NDA submitted in May 2023. The CRL cited GMP deficiencies at the Hengrui Pharma facility where camrelizumab is manufactured and incomplete Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) clinical inspections due to FDA travel restrictions. The FDA did not indicate any issues related to clinical data or with the manufacturing site for rivoceranib. During a Type A meeting with the FDA in July, the FDA confirmed the responses to observations at the Hengrui manufacturing site were sufficient, resubmission could occur without further delay and BIMO inspections may occur after resubmission.

"Elevar’s timely resubmission of the NDA for the combination of camrelizumab and rivoceranib marks a critical milestone in our mission to bring a novel combination therapy for uHCC to patients and healthcare providers. HCC remains an area of significant unmet medical need," said Dr. Saeho Chong, chief executive officer of Elevar Therapeutics. "This achievement would not have been realized without the extraordinary dedication of Elevar’s teams. We are eager to work with the FDA in the coming months as we focus on the commercialization of our combination therapy." The resubmission is supported by the Phase 3 CARES-310 study landmark analysis presented during the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting on June 1, which reported median overall survival (mOS) of 23.8 months, the longest mOS for any treatment in a global Phase 3 trial for patients with uHCC, confirming the combination of camrelizumab and rivoceranib continued to show sustained long-term survival as a first-line treatment for uHCC.

"The combination of camrelizumab and rivoceranib shows distinct promise as a potential therapy for patients suffering from advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with efficacy results generally consistent across all subgroups," commented Ahmed Omar Kaseb, M.D., professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "The resubmission is strengthened by the recent CARES-310 landmark analysis, which reported the longest median overall survival for any treatment in a global Phase 3 trial in the uHCC setting."

About Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Worldwide each year more than 800,000 people are diagnosed with liver canceri and the disease is the cause of more than 830,000 deaths.ii Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and most frequently develops in people with chronic underlying liver inflammation which may be from viral and non-viral causes. HCC typically has a poor prognosis with limited treatment options and continues to be a diagnosis with an ongoing urgent medical need.

About Rivoceranib

Rivoceranib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), is a highly potent inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), a primary pathway for tumor angiogenesis. VEGFR inhibition is a clinically validated target to limit tumor growth and disease progression. Rivoceranib is currently being studied as a monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy in various solid tumor indications. Ongoing clinical studies include uHCC (in combination with camrelizumab), gastric cancer (as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel), adenoid cystic carcinoma (as a monotherapy) and colorectal cancer (in combination with Lonsurf). Rivoceranib was the first TKI approved in gastric cancer in China (November 2014). It is also approved in China in combination with camrelizumab as a first-line treatment for uHCC (January 2023). The drug has been studied in more than 6,000 patients worldwide and was well tolerated in clinical trials with a comparable safety profile to other TKIs and VEGF inhibitors. Orphan drug designations have been granted in gastric cancer (U.S., EU and South Korea), in adenoid cystic carcinoma (U.S.) and in uHCC (U.S. and EU). Elevar Therapeutics, Inc. holds the global rights (excluding China) to rivoceranib and has partnered for its development and marketing with HLB-LS in South Korea. Rivoceranib, under the name apatinib, is also approved in China for advanced gastric cancer and in second-line advanced HCC by the Chinese -territory license-holder, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Company Ltd., (Hengrui Pharma), under the brand name Aitan.

About Camrelizumab

Camrelizumab (SHR-1210) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to the programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor. Blockade of the PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathway is a therapeutic strategy showing success in a wide variety of solid and hematological cancers. Camrelizumab is developed by Hengrui Pharma and has been studied in more than 5,000 patients. Currently, 50 clinical trials are underway in a broad range of tumors (including liver cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, and breast cancer, etc.) and treatment settings. Camrelizumab, under the brand name AiRuiKa, is currently approved for eight indications in China, including monotherapy for the treatment of HCC (second-line), in combination with rivoceranib as a treatment for uHCC (first-line), relapsed/refractory classic Hodgkin’s lymphoma (third-line), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (second-line) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (third-line or further) and in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (non-squamous and squamous), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the first-line setting. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Orphan Drug Designation to camrelizumab for advanced HCC in April 2021 and by the EMA in August 2024.

In October 2023, Elevar licensed camrelizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, for commercialization from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (Hengrui Pharma) worldwide excluding Greater China and Korea.

On September 23, 2024 Elevation Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELEV), an innovative oncology company focused on the discovery and development of selective cancer therapies to treat patients across a range of solid tumors with significant unmet medical needs, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation (FTD) to EO-3021, a differentiated antibody drug conjugate (ADC), for the treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic gastric and gastroesophageal junction (GC/GEJ) cancer expressing Claudin 18.2 that has progressed on or after prior therapy (Press release, Elevation Oncology, SEP 23, 2024, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=elevation-oncology-receives-fast-track-designation-from-the-fda-for-eo-3021-for-the-treatment-of-adult-patients-with-advanced-or-metastatic-gastric-or-gastroesophageal-junction-cancer-expressing-claud [SID1234646817]).

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"We are delighted to receive Fast Track designation for EO-3021, which marks an encouraging recognition of the unmet medical need in patients with Claudin 18.2-expressing tumors, as well as the potential for EO-3021 to deliver improved therapeutic outcomes," said Joseph Ferra, President and Chief Executive Officer of Elevation Oncology. "This designation is based on nonclinical and initial clinical data from our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial. As we announced in August, early results showed a confirmed overall response rate of 42.8% in a Claudin 18.2-enriched subset of gastric and GEJ cancer. In addition, we observed differentiated tolerability, with minimal MMAE-associated toxicities, including no neutropenia or peripheral neuropathy/hypoesthesia. We are grateful for the opportunity to potentially expedite the delivery of EO-3021 and look forward to advancing through monotherapy dose expansion and reporting additional data from our ongoing trial in the first half of 2025, and to initiating the combination portion of our study later this year."

Fast Track is a process designed by the FDA to facilitate the development and expedite the review of therapeutic candidates intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions, for which nonclinical or clinical data demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs. Therapeutic candidates that receive FTD may be eligible for more frequent interactions with the FDA to discuss the candidate’s development plan. Therapeutic candidates with Fast Track designation may also be eligible for priority review and accelerated approval if supported by clinical data.

About EO-3021

EO-3021 is a differentiated, clinical-stage antibody drug conjugate (ADC) with best-in-class potential comprised of an immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) monoclonal antibody (mAb) that targets Claudin 18.2 and a monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) payload with a cleavable linker that is site-specifically conjugated to Glutamine 295 providing a drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) of 2. Claudin 18.2 is a specific isoform of Claudin 18 that is normally expressed in gastric epithelial cells. During malignant transformation, the tight junctions may become disrupted, exposing Claudin 18.2 and allowing them to be accessible by Claudin 18.2 targeting agents. Elevation Oncology is evaluating EO-3021 in a Phase 1 trial (NCT05980416) in patients with advanced, unresectable or metastatic solid tumors likely to express Claudin 18.2 including gastric, gastroesophageal junction, pancreatic or esophageal cancers.

Elevation Oncology has the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize EO-3021 in all global territories outside Greater China.

On September 23, 2024 Amplia Therapeutics Limited (ASX: ATX), ("Amplia" or the "Company"), reported that the Company’s Phase 2a clinical trial investigating narmafotinib in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer (the ACCENT trial) has achieved the required response rate to support continued enrolment in the study (Press release, Amplia Therapeutics, SEP 23, 2024, View Source [SID1234646785]). Six (6) patients have now recorded confirmed partial responses (PRs) out of 16 assessed at the four-month timepoint, indicating that the combination of narmafotinib with the chemotherapies gemcitabine and Abraxane is sufficiently active to support continuation of the trial.

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The formal term ‘confirmed partial response’ means in these patients there is at least a 30% decrease in the overall size of tumour lesions, with no new tumour lesions, sustained over a two-month period.

A total of 50 patients are planned for the Phase 2a ACCENT trial. With the six (6) confirmed PRs now obtained, recruitment of the remaining 24 patients in the trial will begin at the existing open trial sites in Australia and South Korea. Recruitment of the second cohort of patients is expected to be completed by end of Q1 2025.

A detailed interim analysis of the Phase 2a trial data obtained to date will be reported in the coming weeks; however, key points are noted below: • Narmafotinib continues to be generally well tolerated by patients with no safety trends identified or dose reductions recorded to date • In addition to 6 confirmed PRs, there have been 7 patients who have recorded stable disease over 2 or more months, including one patient whose stable disease has improved to achieve a partial response at their 4-month assessment

Amplia CEO and MD Dr Chris Burns commented: "Having now confirmed our sixth PR, we will move forward with recruiting the remaining 24 patientsfor the trial. We are actively working with our clinical sites to ensure seamless reopening of enrolment with the goal of completing recruitment by the end of March 2025. As always, we thank the patients and their loved ones for being involved with this trial"

About Narmafotinib

Narmafotinib (AMP945) is the company’s best-in-class inhibitor of the protein FAK, a protein overexpressed in pancreatic and other cancers, and a drug target gaining increasing attention for its role in solid tumours. The drug, which is a highly potent and selective inhibitor of FAK, has shown promising data in a range of preclinical cancer studies. The drug has successfully completed a healthy volunteer study, and is currently in an open-label Phase 2a trial in pancreatic cancer where a combination of narmafotinib and the chemotherapies gemcitabine and Abraxane is being assessed for safety, tolerability and efficacy.

About the ACCENT Trial

The ACCENT trial is entitled ‘A Phase 1b/2a, Multicentre, Open Label Study of the Pharmacokinetics, Safety and Efficacy of AMP945 in Combination with Nab-paclitaxel and Gemcitabine in Pancreatic Cancer Patients’.

The ACCENT trial explores the use of narmafotinib in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy of gemcitabine and Abraxane in first-line patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The trial is a single-arm open label study conducted in two stages. The firststage (Phase 1b), completed in November 2023, identified a 400 mg oral daily dose of narmafotinib, given in the days preceding regular chemotherapy infusion, as safe and well tolerated.

This second stage (Phase 2a), of the trial is designed to assess drug efficacy in combination with gemcitabine and Abraxane. The primary endpoints are Objective Response Rate (ORR) and Duration on Trial (DOT) with secondary endpoints being Progression Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS). Safety and tolerability will continue to be assessed.

More information about the ACCENT trial, including a list of participating sites, can be found via the Amplia Therapeutics website and at ClinicalTrials.gov under the identifier NCT05355298.