Roche has taken the lead in the race to bring subcutaneous checkpoint inhibitors to market in the West, reporting phase 3 results that tee it up to file for approval in the U.S. and the EU.
Checkpoint Therapeutics is prepping for a conversation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding the potential for a second possible indication for its experimental anti-PD-L1 antibody, cosibelimab, based on positive interim efficacy results in a type of carcinoma.
In the month ending April 7, 423 cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center were diagnosed with COVID-19, 20% of whom developed serious respiratory symptoms. That in and of itself wasn’t surprising, given that cancer patients are immuno-compromised and therefore face a higher risk of struggling with the virus.
But one trend that emerged among those COVID victims did surprise their MSK oncologists: The risk of poor outcomes was higher among patients who had been treated with drugs that inhibit “checkpoints” such as PD-1 and CTLA-4 so the immune system can recognize and attack cancer, according to a study (PDF) published in Nature Medicine.
The first two rounds of treatment went off without a hitch. But last November, after receiving a third dose of potent immunotherapy for his skin cancer, Rich Lenihan started to feel tired and weak.
He was urinating constantly, and no amount of water could abate his thirst. A blood test revealed glucose levels that were through the roof.
Lenihan, at age 62, had developed a disease akin to type 1 diabetes — formerly called “juvenile” diabetes — a rare complication of drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors that rev up the body’s immune assault on tumor tissue.
Checkpoint-inhibiting cancer drugs don’t work for as many as half of patients, even when they’re combined with other cancer treatments. Now, two separate research groups have uncovered contributors to immuno-oncology drug resistance, offering insight that could lead to new treatment strategies.
BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ:BGNE) announced on 7/25/18 that the first patient was dosed in a Phase 3 clinical trial of tislelizumab, an investigational anti-PD-1 antibody, combined with chemotherapy, as a potential first-line treatment in Chinese patients with Stage IIIB or IV non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
NeoImmuneTech (NIT), an immunotherapy drug development company focused on advanced cancer treatments, and its parent company Genexine, have entered into an agreement with Roche to enable studies of a combination treatment in three advanced high-risk skin cancer types: melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRTX) (the Company or Mirati), On 4/24/18 provided a progress update on its lead development programs and announced updated, positive clinical trial data for sitravatinib, a spectrum selective kinase inhibitor, and mocetinostat, a class I and IV HDAC inhibitor. The Company has been evaluating sitravatinib and mocetinostat in separate Phase 2 clinical trials in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients whose disease had progressed following prior treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor.
Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRTX) (the Company or Mirati), On 4/24/18 provided a progress update on its lead development programs and announced updated, positive clinical trial data for sitravatinib, a spectrum selective kinase inhibitor, and mocetinostat, a class I and IV HDAC inhibitor. The Company has been evaluating sitravatinib and mocetinostat in separate Phase 2 clinical trials in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients whose disease had progressed following prior treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor.