On July 29, 2015 Ignyta, Inc. (Nasdaq: RXDX), a precision oncology biotechnology company, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Investigational New Drug application (IND) for Ignyta’s new chemical entity RXDX-107, a next-generation alkyl ester of bendamustine encapsulated in human serum albumin (HSA) to form nanoparticles (Press release, Ignyta, JUL 29, 2015, View Source [SID:1234506739]).

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Under this IND, the company intends to initiate a new Phase 1/1b, multicenter, open-label clinical trial of RXDX-107 in adult patients. This dose-escalation study is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D), tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary clinical activity of RXDX-107 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors.

"The FDA’s determination that our planned Phase 1/1b clinical trial of RXDX-107 may proceed under our IND is a significant milestone for Ignyta," said Jonathan Lim, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Ignyta. "Although we just recently acquired rights to RXDX-107 from Teva in March, our team has worked hard in the meantime to fully integrate this product candidate into our business and prepare and submit the IND just a quarter later. This IND represents Ignyta’s second successful IND filing with the FDA, and RXDX-107 will be our third product candidate in the clinic. We look forward to beginning to treat cancer patients with this product candidate."

About RXDX-107

RXDX-107 is new chemical entity comprising an alkyl ester of bendamustine encapsulated in HSA to form nanoparticles. RXDX-107 is designed to have increased half-life and improved tissue biodistribution by leveraging the affinity characteristics of albumin for tumor cells, while retaining the unique cytotoxic properties of bendamustine. These improvements may provide meaningful benefit to patients with solid tumors. In preclinical pharmacology studies, RXDX-107 has demonstrated anti-tumor activity in multiple in vitro and in vivo studies, including cell line-based and patient-derived xenograft models of solid tumors.