On January 26, 2023 NETRIS Pharma, a clinical-stage private biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of drugs based on dependence receptor biology, reported dosing of the first patients in a multicenter, prospective, single arm, proof-of-concept trial of the anti-netrin-1 antibody, NP137, in combination with atezolizumab-bevacizumab (Atezo-bev) in first line patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (Press release, Netris Pharma, JAN 26, 2023, View Source [SID1234626587]). Called Liver-NET1 (NCT05546879), the study will enroll 43 to 52 patients and consists of two parts: a safety lead-in phase, with 3-12 patients, and an expansion phase of 40 patients, where efficacy endpoints, including best overall objective response rate (ORR), will be measured. Netrin-1 is a protein ligand found to be over-expressed in many cancers.
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"Liver-NET1 is our third clinical trial and the second we have launched within the last 2 months, illustrating the acceleration of our clinical development plan and the interest of combining NP137 with standard of care in multiple oncology indications," said Patrick Mehlen, CEO of NETRIS Pharma. "The company is already including patients in GYNET and IMMUNONET trials to evaluate the potential incremental benefit of combining NP137 with immunotherapies and chemotherapies, and we believe there could also be great promise in HCC ."
Liver-NET1 is an investigator initiated trial led Dr. Gael Roth, a GI oncologist expert in primary liver cancers, from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Grenoble Alpes (CHUGA). Ten other clinical centers in France will participate in the study.
"Despite the demonstrated benefits of Atezo-bev as new standard of care, only 30% of patients respond to this treatment. The unique mode of action of NP137, impacting on the tumoral plasticity, is generating significant interest from clinicians to potentially increase patient response and reduce resistance in HCC treatment," said Dr. Roth. "We look forward to evaluate this combination in advanced HCC in a first line setting, in which therapeutic advances are seriously needed to better treat patients."