On June 12, 2023 Parthenon Therapeutics, a precision oncology company discovering and developing a novel class of therapies that reprogram the tumor microenvironment (TME), reported that the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) has published results from an international panel of cancer experts convened to provide an initial consensus on the role of immune exclusion in cancer (Press release, Parthenon Therapeutics, JUN 12, 2023, View Source [SID1234632688]).

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The article "Developing a Definition of Immune Exclusion in Cancer: Results of a Modified Delphi Workshop," identifies key characteristics of and issues relevant to the role immune exclusion plays in resistance to checkpoint therapy and is now available online. The work described in the paper was performed in collaboration with multiple US and international academic institutions.

"Immune exclusion until now has not had a well-defined profile, but we know it exists across multiple tumor types," said J. Paul Eder, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Parthenon Therapeutics. "In collaboration with academic leaders, Parthenon is pioneering how to recognize and define immune exclusion in cancer and understand the mechanisms underlying it. By modulating the tumor microenvironment and breaking down the barrier that tumors construct to protect them from an immune attack, we think we can overcome immune exclusion and thus, improve patient outcomes."

Parthenon recently initiated a Phase 1 trial for its lead candidate PRTH-101 first-in-human clinical trial in patients with immune-excluded solid tumors (NCT05753722).

About PRTH-101

PRTH-101 is a therapeutic antibody that specifically binds to and blocks DDR1, a protein expressed on tumor cells that binds collagen to make a minimally permeable physical barrier that blocks immune cells from interacting with and attacking tumor cells. Thus, these "immune cell-excluded" solid tumors are resistant to attack by the immune system (as well as other existing therapies). By disabling DDR1, the collagen fibers lose alignment and loosen, creating gaps in the tumor barrier, thus allowing T-cells to enter and naturally attack the tumor. The creation of DDR1-directed collagen alignment does not appear to have a normal physiological surrogate and may therefore be unique to pathologies such as neoplasia, potentially allowing for relatively safe interventions. Thus, blockade of DDR1 represents a unique and "orthogonal" approach to stimulating the immune-based antitumor activity, and such blockade shows both single agent anti-tumor activity as well as marked augmentation of immunity enhanced by PD-1 blockade.

Tumor types which show particularly high levels of DDR1-associated collagen barriers include colorectal, ovarian, and non-small cell lung cancer. Currently, there are no approved drugs that target DDR1.

On June 12, 2023 Genialis, a computational precision medicine company unraveling complex biology to find new ways to treat disease, reported results from an independent validation study of a KRAS biomarker signature for lung adenocarcinoma (Press release, Genialis, JUN 12, 2023, View Source [SID1234632687]). In this study, Genialis reimplemented a previously developed gene expression-based classifier and applied it to a new data set to evaluate the model’s reliability and applicability across demographically distinct clinical cohorts. While the original study’s results could be faithfully recapitulated, the classification scheme did not transfer to a new cohort with different demographics and treatment histories. These results demonstrate a need for a more robust or generalizable set of features and models. A new poster with the results was released at the 2023 Annual Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR23-0944).

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A search of PubMed returns more than one million entries for papers related to biomarkers, showing an exponential increase in the database since 1980. Interest in biomarkers is understandable since using biomarkers increases the odds of advancing an oncology clinical asset to the next trial phase by 5-12 fold. Further, even once approved, many of the best drugs achieve clinical benefit in only 30-40 percent of patients. Yet published biomarkers often prove to be overfitted to particular datasets and perform poorly on additional patient cohorts, particularly those with diverse genetic backgrounds. Today’s Genialis-EACR poster underscores the need to address biases in data collection and model training when developing novel biomarkers to ensure clinical utility.

"Most investigational cancer drugs, up to 97 percent, fail in clinical trials. And of those that succeed, many benefit only a fraction of patients," said Luka Ausec, Ph.D., Chief Discover Officer at Genialis. "Our ResponderID platform is designed specifically to enable the discovery, training, and validation of machine learning models as predictive biomarkers. We are developing a new generation of biomarkers that use gene expression data to represent complex disease biologies, and the work often starts with improving upon the existing state-of-the-art models to help meet the needs of more patients. The present study exemplifies how thorough study can expose weaknesses in the prior art."

The ResponderID platform is a technology suite for clinical and translational research, built from years of experience working with partners across the industry and advanced internal R&D. With a growing library of standard of care and state-of-the-art signatures built in, it provides clinical and translational researchers with a comprehensive molecular portrait of their patients, yielding the most informed decision-making possible.

To request a meeting at EACR, or for more information on ResponderID, please email [email protected] or visit www.genialis.com.

On June 12, 2023 Lantern Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRN), an artificial intelligence ("AI") company developing targeted and transformative cancer therapies using its proprietary RADR AI and machine learning ("ML") platform with multiple clinical stage drug programs, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the investigational new drug (IND) application for LP-184, which is being developed for multiple advanced solid tumors and central nervous system (CNS) cancers (Press release, Lantern Pharma, JUN 12, 2023, View Source [SID1234632686]). The first-in-human Phase 1A trial for LP-184 is anticipated to launch and dose its first patient during the current quarter.

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"The clearance of the IND application is a significant milestone for our LP-184 program and validates our approach of leveraging AI and machine learning to advance our pipeline of novel drug candidates," stated Panna Sharma, Lantern’s CEO and President. "Insights from our AI platform RADR were instrumental in our development of LP-184 and aided in discovering its mechanism of action, identifying and prioritizing its cancer indications, and generating machine learning biomarker signatures to assist with future clinical trial patient selection. We believe LP-184 has blockbuster potential for patients with multiple types of advanced solid tumors and CNS cancers, many of which have no or limited effective therapeutic options," continued Sharma.

LP-184 is the first of Lantern’s drug candidates to be developed entirely internally, with the assistance of Lantern’s AI and ML platform RADR, to advance to a first-in-human Phase 1A trial. The Phase 1A trial will assess the safety and tolerability of escalating doses of LP-184 to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, recurrent high-grade gliomas/glioblastoma (GBM), metastatic brain and CNS cancers, and other solid tumors with DNA damage response (DDR) deficiencies. Lantern anticipates the Phase 1A trial to be completed by the first half of 2024.

After the Phase 1A trial is completed, Lantern will advance LP-184 into additional clinical trials for multiple solid tumor indications, and Lantern’s subsidiary, Starlight Therapeutics, will advance the clinical development of LP-184 for all brain and CNS indications under the name STAR-001. Globally, the aggregate annual market potential of LP-184/STAR-001’s programs is estimated to be approximately $11-13 billion, consisting of $6-7 billion for solid tumors and $5-6 billion for CNS cancers.

About LP-184:

LP-184 is a unique small molecule that utilizes its powerful mechanism of action known as synthetic lethality to exploit common vulnerabilities in solid tumor and CNS cancers with DNA damage repair (DDR) deficiencies. The anti-tumor potential of LP-184 has been demonstrated across an extensive number of in-vitro and in-vivo cancer models, including pancreatic, bladder, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), glioblastoma (GBM), brain metastases, and ATRT. In addition to LP-184’s promise as a single agent, its antitumor potency has the potential to be enhanced when used in combination with existing FDA-approved agents and other treatment modalities including spironolactone, PARP inhibitors, and radiation therapy. Results validating LP-184’s anti-tumor potential have been published at leading conferences and journals including, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) annual meeting, the Society for Neuro-Oncology annual meeting, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, and the Frontiers in Drug Discovery Journal.

On June 12, 2023 Omeros Corporation (Nasdaq: OMER) reported that the slides presented yesterday in the "late-breaker" session at the 2023 European Hematology Association (EHA) (Free EHA Whitepaper) Congress in Frankfurt, Germany are now available on Omeros’ website (Press release, Omeros, JUN 12, 2023, View Source [SID1234632685]). The presentation, which details data from a pre-specified interim analysis from the ongoing Phase 1b clinical trial of Omeros’ lead MASP-3 inhibitor OMS906 in complement-inhibitor-naïve adults with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), was identified by EHA (Free EHA Whitepaper)’s Scientific Program Committee as one of the top five late-breaking submissions and selected for oral presentation. The presentation, entitled OMS906, A mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-3 (MASP-3) Inhibitor, Normalizes Hemoglobin Levels in Treatment-naïve PNH Patients: Interim Data from a Proof-of-Concept Clinical Trial, was delivered to a large audience by Jens Panse, MD, Senior Physician and Deputy Director of the Department of Hematology, Oncology, Hemostaseology and Stem Cell Transplantation, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, and Managing Medical Director of the Center for Integrated Oncology, Aachen, Germany.

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Also available on Omeros’ website is a second presentation at EHA (Free EHA Whitepaper) – Alternative Pathway MASP-3 Inhibitor OMS906: Results from a First-in-Man Phase 1 Study in Healthy Subjects and Study Design of Two Ongoing Clinical Trials in Patients with PNH – by Morag Griffin, MBChB, FRCPath, Consultant in Haematology of St. James University Teaching Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom. This poster presentation describes findings from a single-ascending dose study evaluating OMS906 safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in healthy subjects.

About PNH

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare, life-threatening acquired disorder that causes production of red blood cells lacking certain surface proteins (CD55 and CD59), making them vulnerable to destruction by the complement system. This leads to intravascular hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells within blood vessels) and extravascular hemolysis (when damaged red blood cells are removed by macrophages in the spleen or liver). Left untreated, PNH is associated with debilitating anemia, a high risk of thrombosis, fatigue, and a severely reduced survival rate. There remains a significant unmet need for PNH therapies, as a large proportion of patients treated with C5 inhibitors continue to experience hemolysis and approximately one third of them still require red blood cell transfusions.

About OMS906

OMS906 is an investigational human monoclonal antibody targeting mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-3 (MASP-3), the key activator of the complement system’s alternative pathway. The complement system plays a central role in inflammation and becomes activated as a result of tissue damage or microbial infection. Responsible for the conversion of pro-complement factor D to complement factor D, MASP-3 is believed to be the premier target in the alternative pathway. MASP-3 has the lowest native circulating level and low relative clearance compared to the other alternative pathway proteins and, unlike C5 and C3 blockers, MASP-3 inhibition leaves intact the lytic arm of the classical pathway, important for fighting infection. Also, unlike other components of the alternative pathway, MASP-3 is believed not to be an acute phase reactant, which could provide a significant advantage to MASP-3 inhibitors, like OMS906, over other alternative pathway inhibitors. MASP-3 inhibitors are thought to have preventive or therapeutic effects across a broad range of diseases including PNH, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), atypical HUS, traumatic brain injury, arthritis, wet age-related macular degeneration, ischemia-reperfusion injury, transplant-related complications and other immune-related disorders. Through its growing and exclusive intellectual property position, Omeros controls the use of MASP-3 inhibitors across a wide range of alternative pathway-related and other diseases and disorders.

On June 12, 2023 Ferring Pharmaceuticals announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a Prior-Approval Supplement (PAS) to the Biologics License Application (BLA) for the novel intravesical gene-therapy ADSTILADRIN (nadofaragene firadenovec-vncg), enabling the Company to scale-up its drug substance manufacturing process at FinVector Oy located in Kuopio, Finland (Press release, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, JUN 12, 2023, View Source [SID1234632684]). Supplies from the scale-up process manufactured at FinVector’s FDA-approved facility will be available as part of the planned product launch.

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"The FDA approval of this supplement is an important step in our manufacturing scale-up which highlights our continued commitment to bring ADSTILADRIN to the community and in helping patients who are suffering from non-muscle invasive bladder cancer," said Brent Ragans, U.S. President, Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

In May 2022, FinVector started construction of a new facility in Kuopio, Finland which will be one of the world’s largest viral vector manufacturing sites. FinVector is a world leader in development and manufacturing of viral-based gene therapy products. A separate facility dedicated to ADSTILADRIN is under construction within Ferring’s FDA-approved manufacturing site at the Parsippany, New Jersey campus and will add near-term drug product capacity.

"Viral-based gene therapies like ADSTILADRIN have great potential for the treatment of severe diseases, including cancers where there is a high unmet patient need," said Giuseppe Carloni, Board Member, FinVector. "Our long-established depth of expertise positions FinVector to remain at the forefront of pioneering the development and manufacture of new precision medicines."

ADSTILADRIN was approved by the FDA in December 2022 for the treatment of adult patients with high-risk, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS) with or without papillary tumors. As the first and only FDA-approved intravesical gene therapy for these patients, ADSTILADRIN provides a potentially transformational alternative to invasive bladder removal surgery.

Ferring remains on track to start making ADSTILADRIN initially available as part of a focused rollout in the United States in the second half of 2023, with supplies increasing in 2024.

About ADSTILADRIN
ADSTILADRIN (nadofaragene firadenovec-vncg) is the first and only FDA-approved intravesical gene-therapy for the treatment of adult patients with high-risk Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS) with or without papillary tumors. It is a non-replicating adenovirus vector-based therapy containing the gene interferon alfa-2b, administered by catheter directly into the bladder once every three months. The vector enters the cells of the bladder wall, releasing the active gene and causing the bladder’s cell walls to secrete high quantities of interferon alfa-2b protein, a naturally-occurring protein the body uses to fight cancer. This approach essentially turns the bladder wall cells into interferon microfactories, enhancing the body’s own natural defenses against the cancer.

ADSTILADRIN has been studied in a clinical trial program that includes 157 patients with high-grade, BCG-unresponsive NMIBC who had been treated with adequate BCG previously and did not see benefit from additional BCG treatment (full inclusion criteria published on clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02773849).1

About Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC)
NMIBC is a form of bladder cancer which is present in the superficial layer of the bladder and has not invaded deeper into the bladder or spread to other parts of the body.2 Bladder cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the U.S., and it is estimated that there were approximately 81,180 new cases of bladder cancer in the U.S. in 20223, 75% of which present as NMIBC.4 In patients with high-risk NMIBC, intravesical BCG remains the first-line standard of care. However, more than 50% of patients who receive initial treatment with BCG will experience disease recurrence and progression within one year, with many developing BCG-unresponsive disease.2 Current treatment options for BCG-unresponsive patients are very limited, and often result in a highly invasive life-changing procedure of radical cystectomy (complete removal of the bladder).5

INDICATION

ADSTILADRIN is a non-replicating adenoviral vector-based gene therapy indicated for the treatment of adult patients with high-risk Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS) with or without papillary tumors.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

CONTRAINDICATIONS: ADSTILADRIN is contraindicated in patients with prior hypersensitivity reactions to interferon alfa or to any component of the product.

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS:

Risk with delayed cystectomy: Delaying cystectomy in patients with BCG-unresponsive CIS could lead to development of muscle invasive or metastatic bladder cancer, which can be lethal. If patients with CIS do not have a complete response to treatment after 3 months or if CIS recurs, consider cystectomy.
Risk of disseminated adenovirus infection: Persons who are immunocompromised or immunodeficient may be at risk for disseminated infection from ADSTILADRIN due to low levels of replication-competent adenovirus. Avoid ADSTILADRIN exposure to immunocompromised or immunodeficient individuals.
DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION: Administer ADSTILADRIN by intravesical instillation only. ADSTILADRIN is not for intravenous use, topical use, or oral administration.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS: Advise females of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during ADSTILADRIN treatment and for 6 months after the last dose. Advise male patients with female partners of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during ADSTILADRIN treatment and for 3 months after the last dose.

ADVERSE REACTIONS: The most common (>10%) adverse reactions, including laboratory abnormalities (>15%), were glucose increased, instillation site discharge, triglycerides increased, fatigue, bladder spasm, micturition (urination urgency), creatinine increased, hematuria (blood in urine), phosphate decreased, chills, pyrexia (fever), and dysuria (painful urination).

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-332-1088. You may also contact Ferring Pharmaceuticals at 1-888-FERRING.