On March 3, 2025 Laekna (2105.HK) reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the IND for LAE120, an internally discovered USP1 inhibitor, for the treatment of advanced solid tumors (Press release, Laekna Therapeutics, MAR 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234650861]).
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LAE120 is a novel, allosteric and highly potent USP1 inhibitor, displaying monotherapy potency and combination activity with PARP inhibitor in HRD (homologous recombination deficiency) cancers. It has a unique chemical structure differentiated from all the other disclosed USP1 inhibitors and is expected to induce a different conformational change in USP1. LAE120 shows robust tumor inhibitory activity across various xenograft models such as MDA-MB-436 and K562 as a single agent and exhibits synergistic effect in combination with PARP inhibitors. It also demonstrates good therapeutic windows in GLP long-term toxicology study. Laekna is actively exploring partnerships to accelerate the clinical development of LAE120.
"Leveraging our deep know-how and extensive expertise in drug discovery, Laekna has developed a distinctive portfolio of innovative drug candidates through the close collaboration of our Med Chem, Biology and AIDD (AI-driven Drug Discovery) teams, continuously advancing preclinical drug candidates into clinical stage. Laekna has also significantly accelerated the progress of drug discovery by utilizing cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools," said Dr. Justin Gu, Chief Scientific Officer of Laekna. "We look forward to bringing novel drugs to patients as swiftly as possible," he added.
Advancing Diversified Pipelines
Laekna is actively advancing preclinical drug candidates. In the fourth quarter of 2024, another internally discovered anti-tumor drug candidate, LAE118, a potentially best-in-class, mutant-selective PI3Kαinhibitor, has advanced to IND-enabling study. PI3Kα mutations are prevalent in patients with breast, colorectal, lung, endometrial, and numerous other cancers. However, the first-generation drugs targeting PI3Kα inhibit the wild-type and mutant PI3Kα with equal potency, which raises concerns of tolerability and therapeutic efficacy.
As a novel allosteric inhibitor, LAE118 demonstrates excellent potency and selectivity towards various PI3Kα mutants. With superior anti-cancer efficacy and tolerability than other current PI3Kα inhibitors, LAE118 is potentially the best-in-class pan-mutant-selective PI3Kα inhibitor. Laekna has presented the preclinical characterization of LAE118 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in December 2024. LAE118 is in IND-enabling studies and IND is expected to be filed in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Strategic Partnerships to Accelerate Globalization
"We will continue to advance and expand our product portfolio in the therapeutic areas where we have accumulated tremendous experience and extensive know-how," said Dr. Chris Lu, Chief Executive Officer of Laekna. "In November 2024, the Group has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Lilly (NYSE:LLY) to support and accelerate global clinical development of LAE102 for the treatment of obesity. We plan to pursue strategic partnerships with global leading pharmaceutical companies to accelerate clinical development and commercialization of our drug candidate assets. We keep advancing and expanding our pipeline and are committed to bringing life-changing medicines to more people around the world," he added.