On June 28, 2022 Schrödinger, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDGR), whose physics-based software platform is transforming the way therapeutics and materials are discovered, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared its investigational new drug (IND) application for its MALT1 inhibitor, SGR-1505. Schrödinger expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial of SGR-1505 in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma in the second half of 2022 (Press release, Schrodinger, JUN 28, 2022, View Source [SID1234616334]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

"Based on the preclinical data for SGR-1505, we believe we have an opportunity to advance a potential best-in-class MALT1 inhibitor into the clinic," stated Karen Akinsanya, Ph.D., president of R&D, therapeutics at Schrödinger. "There is a significant medical need for patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma who have exhausted currently approved treatment options, and we look forward to initiating our Phase 1 clinical study of SGR-1505 later this year."

The planned multi-center, dose-escalation study will be conducted in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and preliminary signals of therapeutic activity of SGR-1505 as a monotherapy. Once the recommended dose is determined, an expansion cohort is planned to evaluate SGR-1505 in combination with other anti-cancer agents, such as BTK and BCL-2 inhibitors, in patients with specific B-cell malignancies.

"Our platform, which combines physics and machine learning, enabled us to accurately assess 8.2 billion compounds computationally and to synthesize only 78 molecules over a 10-month period of iterative "design, make, test" optimization cycles, ultimately selecting SGR-1505 as our development candidate," said Robert Abel, Ph.D., chief computational scientist at Schrödinger. "FDA clearance of the IND for SGR-1505 marks an important milestone for our MALT1 program and underscores the impact of incorporating a digital chemistry strategy into research programs."

About SGR-1505
SGR-1505 is a mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) inhibitor that was discovered using Schrödinger’s proprietary physics-based computational platform. MALT1 is a protease that is downstream of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), in the NF-kB signaling pathway. Constant activation of NF-kB is a hallmark of several subtypes of lymphoma. MALT1 is considered a potential therapeutic target for several non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphomas. Data presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) 2021 Annual Meeting showed that inhibiting MALT1 may provide additional therapeutic options for patients with certain subtypes of non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphomas such as ABC-DLBCL, with the possibility of expanding into other B-cell lymphomas such as mantle cell lymphoma. Furthermore, the data showed that Schrödinger’s MALT1 inhibitors demonstrated strong anti-tumor activity alone and in combination with BTK inhibitors and overcame drug-induced resistance in samples derived from patients with relapsed and resistant B-cell lymphomas. SGR-1505 is initially being developed for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s B-cell lymphomas.