Debiopharm and Repare Therapeutics Partner to Explore the Synthetic Lethal Combination of PKMYT1 and WEE1 Inhibition in Cancer

On January 4, 2024 Debiopharm (www.debiopharm.com), a privately-owned, Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company aiming to establish tomorrow’s standards of care to cure cancer and infectious diseases, reported that it has entered into a clinical study and collaboration agreement with Repare Therapeutics Inc. ("Repare") (Nasdaq: RPTX), a leading clinical-stage precision oncology company (Press release, Debiopharm, JAN 4, 2024, View Source [SID1234638995]). This clinical collaboration aims to explore the synergy between Debio 0123, a potential best-in-class, brain-penetrant, and highly selective WEE1 inhibitor, and lunresertib, a first-in-class, selective and potent oral, small molecule inhibitor of PKMYT1 with demonstrated anticancer activity.

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"We are delighted to enter into this clinical collaboration with Repare, the leader in PKMYT1 inhibition, to reinforce our commitment to the DDR space with our potential best-in-class WEE1 inhibitor. We believe this synthetic lethality approach will bring an innovative precision medicine therapy to patients"

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Under the clinical study and collaboration agreement, the combination of lunresertib and Debio 0123 will be evaluated in a new arm of Repare’s ongoing global MYTHIC study (NCT04855656) under Repare’s sponsorship. The Phase 1/1b clinical trial is anticipated to initiate in the first half of 2024. Debiopharm and Repare will collaborate on the design of the trial arm for the development of the combination and will share all costs equally. Debiopharm and Repare will each supply their respective drugs, and each retain all commercial rights to their respective compounds, including as monotherapy or as combination therapies.

"We are delighted to enter into this clinical collaboration with Repare, the leader in PKMYT1 inhibition, to reinforce our commitment to the DDR space with our potential best-in-class WEE1 inhibitor. We believe this synthetic lethality approach will bring an innovative precision medicine therapy to patients," said Bertrand Ducrey, CEO of Debiopharm. "This is the first time that Debiopharm has initiated a collaboration to combine two investigational compounds, demonstrating our excitement by the potential of this therapeutic approach in hard-to-treat cancers."

At the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)-NCI-EORTC conference held in Boston in October 2023, Repare presented data showing that the combination of lunresertib and Debio 0123 is highly synergistic, and drives rapid and deep tumor regressions (Gallo et al., Poster #A023). Unpublished data independently generated by Debiopharm confirmed the dramatic synergy of the Debio 0123/lunresertib combination in vivo, further supporting the rationale for this clinical collaboration. In addition, several recent preclinical studies published by Repare and its collaborators have demonstrated proof-of-concept for the combination of WEE1 and PKMYT1 inhibition in relevant cancer cell lines and animal models of cancer (Sokhi et al. "Investigating Wee1 and Myt1 combined inhibition as a potential cancer therapeutic strategy", AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2023, Poster #5511; Benada et al., 2023).

"Combining with Debiopharm’s highly selective WEE1 inhibitor is the ideal strategy to further extend our leadership in PKMYT1 inhibitor development," said Lloyd M. Segal, CEO of Repare. "The compelling mechanistic rationale and preclinical data Repare and Debiopharm have each generated for this combination give us confidence in its potential to deliver transformative benefit to patients with high unmet medical need."