On January 2, 2024 INmune Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: INMB) (the "Company"), a clinical-stage immunology company focused on developing treatments that harness the patient’s innate immune system to fight disease, reported to have dosed the first patient in the Phase I/II trial in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) on December 27, 2023 (Press release, INmune Bio, JAN 2, 2024, View Source [SID1234638875]). INKmune is a biologic therapy given as out-patient therapy without the need for pre-medication or cytokine support.
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"Results of immunotherapy trials for mCRPC have been disappointing," said Professor Matt Rettig, Professor of Medicine and Urology, Medical Director of the Prostate Cancer Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "After many failures using T-cell focused immunotherapy approaches, targeting NK cells — which are abundant in the prostate cancer tumor microenvironment — is a promising and novel strategy. I am optimistic about the therapeutic potential of INKmune, an off-the-shelf innate immune therapy." Professor Rettig was deeply involved in the design of the clinical trial. Dr. Rettig’s statements should not be construed as endorsement by the University of California.
CaRe PC is an open label Phase I/II trial that will test up to three doses of INKmune in men with mCRPC. INKmune is given as out-patient therapy via intravenous infusion three times in the first two weeks of treatment (days 1, 8 and 15). The patient is followed for six months with careful study of immunologic and anti-cancer responses to INKmune treatment. Immune responses include changes in numbers of tumor killing memory-like NK cells in the patient’s blood and how long these specialized NK cells remain in the circulation. Anti-tumor responses will be monitored by following the level of prostatic surface antigen (PSA) in the blood, as well as using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to quantify the number and size of metastatic lesions using piflufolastat F 18 – a PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen) imaging agent developed by Lantheus, and by measuring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the blood. As many as 30 patients will receive one of three levels of dose of INKmune (low, medium, high).
"There are two key elements for successful immunotherapy. There must be immune cells in the tumor and the drug must convert those immune cells into cancer killing cells," said Prof. Mark Lowdell Ph.D., CSO of INmune Bio and inventor of INKmune. "Prostate cancer has many resting NK cells, and we believe INKmune will convert those resting NK cells into memory-like NK cells that can attack the tumor."
The study uses a novel modified Bayesian design. The sequential Phase I dose escalation portion will be followed by a Phase II trial that will simultaneously enroll patients in all dosing cohorts. Once the Phase I portion is complete, the doses that are safe will be tested simultaneously in the Phase II portion of the trial. Up to 10 patients will be enrolled at each dose level. There are two primary goals of the trial. The first is to demonstrate the safety of INKmune in the patient population (men with mCRPC). The second is to determine which dose of INKmune should be used in a blinded, randomized registration trial. Determining the best dose of INKmune to use in future clinical trials will depend on a combination of immunologic and anti-tumor responses seen in the men treated with INKmune therapy.