On October 30, 2020 In 2018, Astellas reported that spent $405 million to buy out long-term biotech partner Potenza Therapeutics and its small group of early-stage cancer drugs (Press release, Astellas, OCT 30, 2020, View Source [SID1234569582]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
These included phase 1 drug ASP8374/PTZ-201, an anti-TIGIT antibody immune checkpoint inhibitor; ASP1948/PTZ-329, an anti-NRP1 antibody inhibiting T-regulatory cells; and ASP1951/PTZ-522, a format GITR agonistic antibody for T-cell priming and costimulation.
Now that list is down by one, as Astellas announced in its financial update today that it was culling PTZ-201, saying simply that it: "Discontinued Phase 1 program for cancer."
This comes as a glut of anti-TIGIT drugs from the likes of Arcus, Roche and Merck have seen success in wedding these drugs to checkpoint inhibitors. The Japanese pharma gave no explanation as to why it was culled. It had been in a combo test with Merck’s Keytruda.
RELATED: Astellas winds down Agensys, turning its back on antibody-drug conjugate research
There were three other cut programs, including ASP1650, an antibody targeting claudin 6, which has been axed in testicular cancer after phase 2 study missed its primary endpoint. According to ClinicalTrials.gov, it still appears to be recruiting for a separate trial in male patients with incurable platinum refractory germ cell tumors.
There is also another midstage asset, ASP8302, a muscarine M3 receptor positive allosteric modulator, which had been in the works for underactive bladder after it too failed to hit its trial goal. Further back in phase 1 was ASP1235/AGS62P1, culled from its work in acute myeloid leukemia, coming from its now wound-down research pact with Agensys.