On November 30, 2015 Ignyta, Inc. (Nasdaq: RXDX), a precision oncology biotechnology company, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) reported that they will collaborate via EORTC’s Screening Patients for Efficient Clinical Trial Access (SPECTA) biomarker screening initiative to identify patients who harbor a gene rearrangement to NTRK1, NTRK3, ROS1 or ALK and therefore may be eligible for Ignyta’s global STARTRK-2 Phase 2 clinical study (Press release, Ignyta, NOV 30, 2015, View Source [SID:1234508358]). Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo! This study is evaluating entrectinib, Ignyta’s novel, orally available, selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting tumors that harbor activating alterations to these genes. Under the collaboration between SPECTA and Ignyta, eligible patients testing positive for a gene rearrangement to NTRK1, NTRK3, ROS1 or ALK are to be exclusively recommended for enrollment in the STARTRK-2 clinical trial.
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SPECTA is a pan-European clinical trial site and cancer patient molecular screening network established by EORTC in collaboration with more than 30 leading cancer treatment centers in 11 European countries to provide efficient access for patients to molecularly driven clinical trials. Tissue samples from cancer patients being treated at SPECTA institutions throughout Europe are sent to the SPECTA program central laboratory at 14M Genomics, a spin-out of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, for molecular genetic analysis. The collaboration will focus initially on SPECTA’s currently active programs to screen patients with colorectal cancer (SPECTAcolor) and lung cancer (SPECTAlung) and will expand to include additional tumor types in the future as additional SPECTA cohorts become activated. The collaboration will extend throughout the accrual phase of the STARTRK-2 study.
"Since we first initiated dialog with the leadership of the EORTC SPECTA initiative a year-and-a-half ago, we have shared their vision to conduct efficient biomarker-driven clinical trials of innovative new cancer medicines," said Jonathan Lim, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Ignyta. "We are honored to be selected by EORTC as the first biopharmaceutical partner for the SPECTA initiative and see this collaboration as an opportunity to help cancer patients throughout Europe by matching patients with certain biomarker signatures to a targeted treatment option."
Denis Lacombe, M.D., EORTC Headquarters Director, added, "SPECTA is a unique model of partnership as it connects all stakeholders involved in drug development, enhancing joint expertise to benefit patients. We look forward to working with Ignyta to leverage the SPECTA infrastructure to study entrectinib in patients with potentially relevant molecular alterations."
About Entrectinib
Entrectinib is a novel, orally available, selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting tumors that harbor activating alterations to NTRK1/2/3 (encoding TrkA/ TrkB/TrkC), ROS1 or ALK. Entrectinib is the most potent Trk inhibitor in the clinic, without undesirable off-target activity, and the only Trk inhibitor with clinically demonstrated activity against CNS metastases. This product candidate is in a Phase 2 clinical trial called STARTRK-2, which is the second of the "Studies of Tumor Alterations Responsive to Targeting Receptor Kinases." The trial is a global, multicenter, open label, potentially registration-enabling Phase 2 clinical trial of entrectinib that utilizes a basket design with screening of patient tumor samples for the relevant targets. Such a basket design takes full advantage of entrectinib’s demonstrated preliminary clinical activity across a range of different tumor types and molecular targets.