On February 15, 2024 Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel immunotherapies reported a new clinical collaboration designed to evaluate and combine DF1001, a HER-2 immune engager developed using Dragonfly’s TriNKET technology platform and Dragonfly’s lead clinical asset, with Trodelvy, Gilead’s Trop-2-directed antibody drug conjugate (ADC), in metastatic breast cancer (mBC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Press release, Dragonfly Therapeutics, FEB 15, 2024, View Source [SID1234640165]).
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"DF1001 is the first of eight Dragonfly-developed drugs in the clinic and has shown clinical benefit in mBC, NSCLC and colorectal cancer (CRC) in a heterogeneous Phase 1 population with 22% RECIST responders and 39% clinical benefit in mBC patients at active dose levels, with no DLTs, even in a heavily-pre-treated population," said Joseph Eid, Dragonfly President of R&D. "It has been demonstrated to be well tolerated across all dose levels in the Phase 1 study as monotherapy, and pharmacodynamic activity was demonstrated in 28/42 (67%) paired biopsies from 0.5-15mg/kg, where increase in CD8 and NK cell infiltration was observed consistent with preclinical models and supporting the TriNKET immune modulating MoA. Our preclinical work has shown the powerful combinatorial effect of TriNKETs with ADCs, and highlighted the potential benefits to patients of using Gilead’s Trodelvy in combination with DF1001."
"We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with Gilead by launching this new clinical stage collaboration," said Bill Haney, CEO and Dragonfly co-founder. "Dragonfly has promising pre-clinical data that highlights the potential for synergistic efficacy when DF1001 is combined with Trodelvy in mBC and NSCLC. We are excited to work with our colleagues at Gilead to bring this combination to patients in need."
Dragonfly will have operational control of the study and first patients are expected to receive this combination in Q2 2024. Clinical trial sites are currently open in the U.S., France, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. Additional sites in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific will open in 2024. Additional information about the trial, including eligibility criteria, can be found at: View Source (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04143711).
About DF1001
DF1001 is an investigational first-in-class drug candidate that targets natural killer (NK) cells and T-cell activation signals to co-activating NK receptors, where NKG2D and CD16 co-stimulation yields distinctive and potent NK cell activation. DF1001 is being evaluated in adult patients for the treatment of advanced solid HER-2 positive tumors. DF1001 was discovered and developed using Dragonfly’s TriNKET platform. DF1001 has the potential to stimulate effective anti-tumor immunity in patients who are not eligible or not adequately responding to current therapies. DF1001 is the most advanced in a pipeline of TriNKETs that Dragonfly is developing to address high unmet needs for patients across a broad range of disease areas.