On July 1, 2024 TRACON Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TCON) reported the objective response rate (ORR) by blinded independent central review (BICR) in the fully enrolled ENVASARC pivotal trial in the 82 evaluable patients is 5% (four responders), which is lower than the primary endpoint of the study of 11% ORR by BICR needed to support a biologics license application (BLA) (Press release, Tracon Pharmaceuticals, JUL 1, 2024, View Source [SID1234644627]). As a result, the Company is terminating further development of envafolimab and is focusing entirely on exploring strategic alternatives in the near term that may include, but are not limited to, a merger, reverse merger, acquisition, other business combination, sales of assets, licensing or other strategic transactions involving the Company.
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In pursuit of any potential strategic transaction, TRACON plans to leverage its turnkey in-house Product Development Platform (PDP) utilizing integrated Veeva systems that has been used to conduct more than 15 Phase 1, 2 or 3 oncology trials at more than 120 sites in the U.S. and Europe across more than ten tumor types over 12 years, at a fully burdened cost of less than $100,000 per patient. TRACON offers cost-savings, time savings and enhanced quality of clinical trials using its PDP.
There can be no assurance the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in any agreements or transactions, or, if completed, any agreements or transactions will be successful or on attractive terms. To the extent that it cannot complete a strategic transaction, there is no guarantee that the Company will continue as a going concern. TRACON does not expect to disclose developments with respect to this process until the evaluation of strategic alternatives has been completed or the Board of Directors has concluded disclosure is appropriate or legally required.
"We are proud of our execution of the largest trial ever done in the sarcoma subtypes of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma and myxofibrosarcoma using TRACON’s Product Development Platform," said Charles Theuer, M.D., Ph.D., TRACON’s Chief Executive Officer. "While individual patients derived benefit from envafolimab, the response rate by blinded independent central review in the ENVASARC trial of envafolimab as a single agent does not support a BLA. We are therefore discontinuing all of our clinical development activities and intend to take action to immediately reduce cash burn to better position the company for this strategic alternative process. We plan to leverage the value of our PDP in pursuing strategic alternatives."
About ENVASARC (NCT04480502)
The ENVASARC pivotal trial is a multicenter, open label, randomized, non-comparative, parallel cohort study at 30 top cancer centers in the United States and the United Kingdom that began dosing in December 2020. The primary endpoint is ORR by blinded independent central review of nine responses in cohort C of approximately 80 patients with duration of response a key secondary endpoint. The trial was fully enrolled and the primary endpoint was not met. As a result, TRACON discontinued further development of envafolimab.