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Corcept Therapeutics Appoints Former Amgen Development Executive, Andreas Grauer, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer

On March 18, 2019 Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT), a commercial-stage company engaged in the discovery and development of drugs to treat severe metabolic, oncologic and psychiatric disorders by modulating the effects of the stress hormone cortisol, reported the appointment of Andreas Grauer, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer (Press release, Corcept Therapeutics, MAR 18, 2019, https://ir.corcept.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corcept-therapeutics-appoints-former-amgen-development-executive [SID1234534417]). Dr. Grauer most recently served as Vice President of Global Development at Amgen.

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"We are delighted Andreas will be joining us," said Joseph K. Belanoff, M.D., Corcept’s Chief Executive Officer. "His extensive experience advancing novel compounds through every stage of development and regulatory approval will be invaluable as Corcept’s pipeline progresses."

"There is much to do," said Dr. Belanoff. "Relacorilant is in the midst of its Phase 3 trial as a treatment for patients with hypercortisolism and in Phase 2 as a treatment for patients with advanced ovarian cancer. More indications for relacorilant, including metastatic pancreatic cancer, are under consideration. We expect to select a dose this year of CORT125281 as a treatment for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. And CORT118335 will enter the clinic soon as a treatment for antipsychotic induced weight gain and, later this year, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis."

"I am excited to join Corcept at this key moment," said Dr. Grauer. "Cortisol modulation has the potential to improve the lives of many seriously ill patients. I look forward to bringing my experience and expertise to bear to develop truly novel, beneficial medications."

Prior to joining Corcept, Dr. Grauer spent more than ten years at Amgen in a variety of leadership roles, most recently as Vice President of Global Development, where he led or oversaw programs in therapeutic areas including bone, nephrology, and inflammation throughout all phases of development. Dr. Grauer also brings significant experience in regulatory filings across the world that culminated in multiple new drug application and biologic license application approvals. Before Amgen, he held senior executive positions at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Grauer holds an M.D. from the University of Heidelberg Medical School, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is Board Certified in both internal medicine and endocrinology in Germany.

Puma Biotechnology Presents Interim Results from the Phase II SUMMIT Trial of Neratinib for HER2 (ERBB2) Mutant, Metastatic Cervical Cancer at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2019 Annual Meeting

On March 18, 2019 Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (Nasdaq: PBYI), a biopharmaceutical company, reported that updated results from the cervical cancer cohort of SUMMIT, an ongoing Phase II basket trial examining the efficacy of neratinib in HER2-mutated cancers, were reported at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2019 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii (Press release, Puma Biotechnology, MAR 18, 2019, View Source [SID1234534416]). "Neratinib in patients with HER2-mutant, metastatic cervical cancer: findings from the phase II SUMMIT ‘basket’ trial," was presented during the Scientific Plenary Session by Anishka D’Souza, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC). SGO selected this abstract as the recipient of the 2019 SGO Presidential Award. Slides from the presentation are available on the Puma Biotechnology website.

The Phase II SUMMIT ‘basket’ trial is an open-label, multicenter, multinational study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of neratinib administered daily to patients who have solid tumors with activating, somatic HER2 mutations. The cervical cancer cohort was comprised of 11 patients with advanced and/or metastatic disease treated with neratinib monotherapy. Patients received a median of 2 (range 1–4) prior regimens in the recurrent or metastatic setting before entering this trial. Six patients (54.5%) had been previously treated with bevacizumab prior to entering the study; 7 patients (63.6%) had received prior surgery; and 9 patients (81.8%) received prior radiation therapy. The objective response rate was 27.3% (95% CI: 6.0%–61.0%). The clinical benefit rate was 54.5% (95% CI: 23.4%–83.3%) and included 3 patients with confirmed partial responses and 3 patients with stable disease that lasted greater than 16 weeks. The median progression free survival was 7.0 months (95% CI: 0.7–20.1 months).

The safety profile observed in neratinib-treated cervical cancer patients in SUMMIT was consistent with that reported for HER2-amplified metastatic breast cancer. The most frequently observed adverse event was diarrhea, any grade (n=9, 81.8%) including 1 (9%) grade 3 diarrhea event. The duration of grade 3 diarrhea was 1 day. None of the diarrhea events resulted in dose reduction, dose discontinuation or hospitalization.

"Somatic HER2 mutations represent a distinct class of oncogenic driver mutations that appear to be clinically actionable for metastatic cervical cancers. Treatment with neratinib led to durable responses and disease control in metastatic patients with HER2-mutant cervical cancer," said Dr. D’Souza, who practices oncology at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Alan H. Auerbach, CEO and President of Puma Biotechnology, added, "We are very pleased with the activity seen with neratinib in this cohort of patients with HER2-mutated cervical cancer. We look forward to the further development of neratinib in this patient population."

vTv Therapeutics Announces $15 Million of Class A Common Stock Financings

On March 18, 2019 vTv Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:VTVT) (the "Company") reported that it has entered into a definitive agreement with certain institutional investors for the purchase and sale in a registered direct offering (the "Registered Direct Offering") of 3,636,364 shares of the Company’s Class A common stock (the "Common Stock") at a price of $1.65 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $6.0 million (Press release, vTv Therapeutics, MAR 18, 2019, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2391591 [SID1234534415]). The offering is expected to close on or about March 20, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

H.C. Wainwright & Co. is acting as the exclusive placement agent.

The Company also entered into a letter agreement (the "Letter Agreement") with MacAndrews & Forbes Group LLC ("M&F Group"), the Company’s largest shareholder, pursuant to which M&F Group has committed to purchase, at the Company’s option and exercisable on demand during a one-year period after the date of the Letter Agreement, up to 5,454,545 unregistered shares of Common Stock at a fixed price of $1.65 per share for aggregate proceeds of approximately $9.0 million assuming the Company elects to sell the entire amount. M&F Group may also exercise a right to purchase those shares on the same terms three times during the same one-year period.

"This financing allows us to initiate two important trials to study therapeutics for underserved populations, one for Type 1 diabetics who rely primarily on insulin and a second for diabetics with Alzheimer’s," said Steve Holcombe, the chief executive officer of vTv Therapeutics. "We expect readouts from these trials in the first quarter of next year and fourth quarter of next year, respectively."

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Registered Direct Offering and the Letter Agreement to fund start-up activities for current and future clinical trials, in addition to ongoing business operations. The clinical trials include:

A phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trial under a single protocol designed to investigate the safety and efficacy of azeliragon in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes as evidenced by elevated HbA1c.
The part 2 confirmatory phase of the ongoing Simplici-T1 Study, a 12-week study to evaluate TTP399 as an add-on to insulin therapy for type 1 diabetics. This trial is being conducted in partnership with JDRF.
The Common Stock in the Registered Direct Offering is being offered and sold by the Company pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (Registration No. 333-223269) that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and declared effective on March 19, 2018. The Registered Direct Offering of shares of Common Stock will be made only by means of a prospectus supplement that forms a part of the registration statement. A prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the Registered Direct Offering will be filed with the SEC. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the Registered Direct Offering may be obtained, when available, from H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, 430 Park Avenue 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by calling (646) 975-6996 or by emailing [email protected] or at the SEC’s website at View Source

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Leap Therapeutics Presents at Society of Gynecologic Oncology 50th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer

On March 18, 2019 Leap Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:LPTX) reported the presentation of clinical data from its ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of DKN-01 in patients with advanced gynecological malignancies at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology 50th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer (Press release, Leap Therapeutics, MAR 18, 2019, View Source [SID1234534414]). Patients, including those with carcinosarcoma and Wnt pathway alterations, have experienced partial responses and durable clinical benefit in both the monotherapy and combination arms of the study. The complete data set will become available in the coming months as the most recently enrolled patients have yet to be evaluated. The complete poster is available on Leap’s website at View Source

"We are very pleased with the single agent and combination activity of DKN-01 in this heavily pre-treated population. Allowing patients to achieve partial responses and durable stable disease with a favorable safety profile reflects meaningful clinical benefit," commented Rebecca C. Arend, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. "With the rapid enrollment of this study since the beginning of the year, we are looking forward to robust data maturing during the year."

"It is encouraging to see the mechanism-based strategy of enriching the study with patients with Wnt pathway alterations lead to impressive clinical outcomes," commented Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "We are also particularly interested in the early activity in carcinosarcoma patients, who are in need of new and better treatment options."

· DKN-01 single agent partial response: Twenty-one patients (who had previously received one to ten lines of therapy) have been enrolled in two monotherapy arms of the study. Twelve patients are currently evaluable. One patient has experienced a partial response (PR), and six patients have had stable disease (SD) for greater than six weeks. Seven patients have been recently enrolled and have not yet had their first imaging assessment. This study marks the third different tumor type where DKN-01 has had single agent activity.

·Partial response and tumor reductions in DKN-01/Paclitaxel combination: Forty-one patients (who had previously received one to nine lines of prior therapy) have been enrolled in two combination arms of the study. Twenty-one patients are currently evaluable. One patient has experienced a PR, and fifteen patients have had SD for greater than six weeks. Thirteen patients have been recently enrolled and have not yet had their first imaging assessment.

·Patients whose tumors had confirmed Wnt pathway alterations experienced a greater duration of clinical benefit: In eight evaluable monotherapy patients with confirmed Wnt pathway alterations, one patient has experienced a PR and four have had SD. In the fourteen evaluable combination therapy patients, one patient has experienced a PR and seven have had SD. The patient with a partial response on DKN-01 combination therapy has a tumor with a CTNNB1 mutation. Tumor CTNNB1 mutations stabilize the transcription factor beta-catenin and are correlated with increased levels of DKK1 and poor clinical outcomes. In this study, eight CTNNB1 patients are evaluable, and six experienced clinical benefit.

· Carcinosarcoma partial response leads to new expansion cohort at higher dose: Carcinosarcoma is a rare and difficult-to-treat form of uterine cancer. Four carcinosarcoma patients have been enrolled, and the three evaluable patients had tumor reductions and one experienced a PR. To explore a new treatment option for these patients, the Company will expand the study and provide a higher dose of DKN-01 as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel.

About P204

The P204 study is a Phase 2 basket study evaluating DKN-01 as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel in patients with relapsed/refractory endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) or endometrioid ovarian cancer (EOC). The study contains four groups and is designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and pharmacodynamics of DKN-01 monotherapy and combination therapy in both EEC and EOC, with each group following a 2-stage Simon Minimax design. The study will enroll approximately 94 patients, of which approximately 50% will be required to have documented activating mutations of beta-catenin or other Wnt signaling alterations.

About DKN-01

DKN-01 is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to and blocks the activity of the Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) protein, a modulator of Wnt/Beta-catenin signaling, a signaling pathway frequently implicated in tumorigenesis and suppressing the immune system. DKK1 has an important role in tumor cell signaling and in mediating an immuno-suppressive tumor microenvironment through enhancing the activity of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and downregulating NK ligands on tumor cells.

Roche to present results of the largest safety study of its kind with Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in patients with metastatic bladder cancer

On March 18, 2019 Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) reported first results from SAUL, a Phase IIIb study evaluating the safety of Tecentriq in approximately 1000 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) including several clinically relevant populations reflective of real-world clinical practice (patients with renal impairment, poor performance status (ECOG PS 2), treated asymptomatic CNS metastases, stable controlled autoimmune disease) (Press release, Hoffmann-La Roche, MAR 18, 2019, View Source [SID1234534413]).[1] Data from the study showed that both safety and efficacy, a secondary endpoint, were consistent with previous studies in both the overall population and a subgroup of patients corresponding to the patient population of the pivotal Phase III study, IMvigor211 ("IMvigor211-like"[2]). The SAUL study is ongoing and further subgroup analyses will also be presented at future medical meetings.

"SAUL is the largest prospective safety study of a cancer immunotherapy in metastatic urothelial carcinoma and provides clinicians with valuable information about Tecentriq in a real-world setting" said Sandra Horning, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. "We remain committed to improving outcomes for people living with this devastating illness and we look forward to sharing data in the future from our ongoing Phase III studies in early and metastatic disease".

The data presented at EAU show that the safety of the Tecentriq monotherapy treatment was consistent with the known safety profile of the medicine. Grade 3-4 adverse events (AEs) occurred in 43% of the patients, and treatment-related grade ≥3 AEs occurred in 13% of the patients, with most common reported side effects being fatigue, asthenia, colitis and hypertension (each in 1%). AEs leading to treatment discontinuation happened in 6% of the patients. Additionally, the efficacy results, secondary endpoints of the study, showed an overall survival of 10 months (95% CI 8.8–11.9 months) in the IMvigor211-like population. In the overall population, median OS was 8.7 months (95% CI 7.8–9.9). The median duration of follow up was 12.7 months.

These data are being presented today at the annual EAU Congress Breaking News Session at 7:30am CET.

About the SAUL study
The SAUL study is a Phase IIIb, prospective, open label, single arm, multicentre study designed to assess the safety of Tecentriq as a second- to fourth-line treatment for people with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (95%) or non-urothelial carcinoma (5%) of the urinary tract. In addition, the study evaluates the efficacy of Tecentriq and potential tumour biomarkers associated with Tecentriq. It enrolled 1004 people globally, 997 of whom received Tecentriq. IMvigor211-like patients and patients with renal impairment, poor performance status (ECOG PS 2), treated asymptomatic CNS metastases or stable controlled autoimmune disease were eligible. The primary endpoint was safety; secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR) and duration of response (DoR).

A summary of the data is included below:

a Includes but not limited to patients with renal impairment, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status grade 2, treated asymptomatic central nervous system metastases or stable controlled autoimmune disease
b All patients corresponding to the patient population in the pivotal IMvigor211 (locally advanced or metastatic UC who have progressed during or following a platinum-containing regimen)
*Treatment-related grade 5 AEs (n=7, 0.7%): two cases of dyspnoea, one case each of colitis, intestinal perforation, respiratory failure, chronic kidney disease, drug-induced liver injury.

*Includes but not limited to patients with renal impairment, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status grade 2, treated asymptomatic central nervous system metastases or stable controlled autoimmune disease.
†Patients corresponding to the patient population in the pivotal IMvigor211 study (locally advanced or metastatic UC who have progressed during or following a platinum-containing regimen)

Tecentriq in genitourinary cancers
Roche has five Tecentriq Phase III studies investigating Tecentriq in different settings and diseases of genitourinary cancers including two Phase III studies in early bladder cancer (IMvigor010) and metastatic bladder cancer (IMvigor130), a Phase III study in metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (IMbassador250) and two Phase III studies in renal cell carcinoma (IMmotion151 and IMmotion010). Tecentriq is already approved as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma: after prior platinum‐containing chemotherapy, or who are considered cisplatin ineligible and whose tumours have a PD-L1 expression ≥5%. The FDA also approved Tecentriq in patients with locally advanced or mUC and ineligible for any platinum-based chemotherapy, irrespective of PD-L1 status.

About Tecentriq
Tecentriq is a monoclonal antibody designed to bind with a protein called PD-L1 expressed on tumour cells and tumour-infiltrating immune cells, blocking its interactions with both PD-1 and B7.1 receptors. By inhibiting PD-L1, Tecentriq may enable the activation of T cells. Tecentriq has the potential to be used as a foundational combination partner with cancer immunotherapies, targeted medicines and various chemotherapies across a broad range of cancers.

In the United States Tecentriq in combination with nab-paclitaxel is approved for treatment of PD-L1-positive metastatic triple-negative breast cancer; and in combination with Avastin and chemotherapy for the initial treatment of people with metastatic non-squamous NSCLC. In the Europe Union, the non-squamous NSCLC indication includes people with EGFR mutant or ALK genomic tumour aberrations after failure of appropriate targeted therapies. Tecentriq is also approved in the European Union, United States and more than 85 countries for people with previously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and for certain types of untreated or previously treated metastatic urothelial carcinoma who are not eligible for cisplatin chemotherapy, or who have had disease progression during or following platinum-containing therapy.

About bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is the tenth most common cancer worldwide, with almost 555,000 new cases diagnosed in 2018. [3] It is the sixth most common cancer in men and the 17th most common cancer in women,[3] and the disease is three times more common in developed countries than in less developed countries.[4] There are three types of bladder cancer: transitional cell carcinoma (which begins in cells in the innermost tissue layer), squamous cell carcinoma (which begins in squamous cells) and adenocarcinoma (which begins in glandular cells in the lining of the bladder). Most cancers that form in the bladder are transitional cell carcinomas.[5]

About Roche in cancer immunotherapy
For more than 50 years, Roche has been developing medicines with the goal to redefine treatment in oncology. Today, we’re investing more than ever in our effort to bring innovative treatment options that help a person’s own immune system fight cancer.
By applying our seminal research in immune tumour profiling within the framework of the Roche-devised cancer immunity cycle, we are accelerating and expanding the transformative benefits with Tecentriq to a greater number of people living with cancer. Our cancer immunotherapy development programme takes a comprehensive approach in pursuing the goal of restoring cancer immunity to improve outcomes for patients.