On January 4, 2024 Portage Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTG), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company advancing novel multi-targeted therapies for use as monotherapy and in combination, reported the outcome from the company’s comprehensive review of its pipeline in the context of the current capital raising market conditions (Press release, Portage Biotech, JAN 4, 2024, View Source [SID1234638980]).
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The ADPORT-201 adaptive Phase 1a/1b clinical trial of PORT-6 (adenosine 2A inhibitor) and PORT-7 (adenosine 2B inhibitor) has been progressing well with strong interest from our eight academic centers in the US. The phase 1a dose escalation portion of the trial is enrolling quickly and there have been no safety signals of concern at the doses evaluated to date. The company looks forward to presenting data from this portion of the trial at a conference later this year. We are also excited about future development with these candidates including combining our potential best-in-class adenosine 2A and adenosine 2B inhibitors at the optimum biologic doses in a biomarker enriched population and collaborating with Merck to study combinations with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy.
After a review of Portage’s funding requirements, the Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to pause further drug development in the PORT-2 iNKT program. "This was a difficult decision considering the promising phase 1 safety and translational data from the non-small cell lung and melanoma trial," said Dr Ian B. Walters, chairman and CEO, "As a result, the company will evaluate a range of potential strategic options which may include among other things, finding a partner for our iNKT program or other corporate transactions." Portage does not intend to disclose developments with respect to this evaluation unless and until it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or necessary.
In connection with these developments and to extend its cash runway, Portage is implementing a cost-savings plan that includes a reduction in internal and contracted workforce, with remaining employees focusing primarily on pursuing the adenosine clinical programs.
"I want to express my sincere gratitude to our investigators and collaborators for their drug development efforts on our iNKT program, as well as the patients who participated in the trials. There is still much to learn about how to develop therapeutics for this target," remarked Dr. Walters.
KEYTRUDA is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.