On February 26, 2019 TG Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TGTX), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing medicines for patients with B-cell mediated diseases, reported the commencement of a Phase I first-in-human trial of TG-1801, the Company’s novel first-in-class anti-CD47/CD19 bispecific antibody, in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma (Press release, TG Therapeutics, FEB 26, 2019, View Source [SID1234533673]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
TG-1801 is the first therapy to target both CD19, a B-cell specific marker widely expressed across B-cell malignancies, and CD47, the "don’t eat me" signal used by both healthy and tumor cells to evade macrophage mediated phagocytosis. CD47 is expressed ubiquitously on normal cells, including red blood cells and platelets. By co-targeting both CD47 and CD19, TG-1801 has the potential to overcome the limitations of existing CD47 targeted therapies by avoiding the side effects caused by indiscriminate blockade of CD47 on healthy cells.
This Phase I open label, multi-center trial is designed to assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, efficacy and recommended Phase 2 dose of TG-1801. The primary objective of the study is to determine the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) and characterize the safety profile of TG-1801, with secondary endpoints including characterization of pharmacokinetics and preliminary anti-cancer activity.
Michael S. Weiss, the Company’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer stated, "We are extremely pleased to announce the commencement of clinical development for TG-1801, our proprietary first-in-class anti-CD47/CD19 bispecific antibody which we licensed from Novimmune last year." Mr. Weiss continued, "CD47 targeted therapy has yielded promising early clinical results, and we look forward to exploring the potential of this dual targeted immunotherapy with a long-term goal of combining TG-1801 with our other in-house immunotherapies and targeted agents to create novel treatment options for patients with B-cell cancers."