The quest for efficacy in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer has produced a fair number of blow-ups, with Erytech’s Graspa and Rafael’s devimistat recently joining a long list of clinical failures. But several new therapies have entered late-stage trials since Evaluate Vantage last looked at the pipeline. Novartis is making a big push here, recently starting a phase 3 trial of its anti-TGF-β MAb NIS793; the Swiss group yesterday also said that a new arm, testing its PD-1 MAb spartalizumab and anti-IL-1 beta antibody canakinumab, would soon be added to the non-industry-sponsored multi-arm phase 3 Precision Promise study.

Many of the late-stage candidates, due to start yielding data in 2022, are aimed at adenocarcinoma, the most common type of pancreatic cancer. First up should be results from Fibrogen’s pamrevlumab and Tyme's SM-88. Meanwhile, combinations of various projects with checkpoint inhibitors are in earlier stages.