ImmunityBio to Present Preliminary Phase 2 Data of 68% Durable Disease Control with Anktiva Plus Checkpoint Inhibitor in First 140 Patients Enrolled with Lung Cancer and Multiple Tumor Types Who Failed Prior Checkpoint Therapy at ASCO 2021
- Chemotherapy free regimen (with NK and T cell activation via Anktiva) in patients across multiple tumor types who failed checkpoint inhibitor therapy
- 140 patients accrued to date in this basket trial of checkpoint failures in lung cancer, melanoma, urothelial, head & neck, gastric and cervical cancer
- Out of 140 patients, 121 patients evaluable to date with 68% (82 out of 121) demonstrating durable disease control following Anktiva (IL-15 superagonist) plus checkpoint therapy after checkpoint failure
- Adverse events (AE) rates (12% grade 3 or above) of the chemo-free combination were better than historical standard of care alternative of combination chemotherapy
- Promising data forms the basis for the actively recruiting randomized Phase 3 clinical trials of Anktiva combination therapy in lung cancer patients (NCT03520686)
The Phase 2 study, titled “Preliminary data from QUILT 3.055: A Phase 2 multi-cohort study of N-803 (IL-15 superagonist) in combination with Checkpoint Inhibitors (CPI)”, details data highlighting the safety and clinical benefit of adding Anktiva to checkpoint inhibitor therapy in second-line or greater treatment regimens in multiple cancer types, a basket trial.
Anktiva is designed to activate natural killer cells and CD8+ T cells, without the activation of T-reg cells that can suppress anti-tumor activity. In this Phase 2 study, Anktiva was administered to each patient in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor that had previously yielded a complete response, partial response, or six months of stable disease in that patient in the setting of first-, second- and third-line therapy before disease progression resumed.
“We are encouraged by the trend to date toward Anktiva’s safety, tolerability and clinical benefit that is robust across several types of historically difficult-to-treat cancers, which aligns with Anktiva’s mechanism of action being agnostic with respect to cancer type,” said
Human solid tumors are made of multiple clones of tumor cells, some of which harbor genomic alterations that make them invisible to T cells. These resistant clones accomplish this “cloaking ability” by preventing the presentation of the tumor antigens on MHC-I receptors, thus “hiding” from killer T cells. For these patients, maximum activation of T cells with immunotherapy is unlikely to lead to durable tumor control or a cure. However, when NK cells are activated, tumor recognition and targeting is restored. Anktiva activates both NK and T cells and a potential mechanism of rescuing patients from checkpoint relapse is the administration of Anktiva together with the same checkpoint therapy.
“We hypothesize that checkpoint therapy alone is insufficient and that the combination of Anktiva with or without PD-L1 t-haNK may advance the strategy of developing a chemotherapy free immunotherapy protocol for the treatment of multiple tumors. We have previously demonstrated that PD-L1 t-haNK plays an important role in checkpoint failures. The encouraging data from this Phase 2 exploratory trial has formed the basis of our randomized Phase 3 clinical trials in lung cancer (QUILT 2.023, NCT03520686)” said
Study highlights to date include:
- 140 patients with checkpoint relapse accrued across multiple tumor types: NSCLC, Small Cell, Urothelial, Head & Neck, Melanoma, Renal, Gastric, and Cervical cancer
- 121 evaluable patients to date with preliminary data demonstrating 68% (82 out of 121) disease control (partial response and stable disease >6 weeks)
- Anktiva exhibits a favorable toxicity profile in combination with several different checkpoint inhibitors in second-line or greater settings, across a variety of tumor types
- Adverse events, 12% of which were grade 3 or above, that were related to the chemotherapy-free combination regimen were favorable to the historical standard of care comprising combination therapies that include chemotherapy
- Treatment-related serious adverse events (SAEs) were seen in 8% of study participants
- Combination regimens that included Anktiva demonstrated clinical benefit in the majority of subjects, with cessation of progression, prolonged stable disease, and occasional partial responses per RECIST were observed in different tumor types
About
The company’s platforms are based on the foundation of four separate modalities: Antibody cytokine fusion proteins, synthetic immunomodulators, second-generation human adenovirus (hAd5) and yeast vaccine technologies, and state-of-the-art, off-the-shelf natural killer cells, including autologous and allogenic cytokine-enhanced memory NK cells.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “continues”, “could”, “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential”, “predicts”, “projects,” “seeks,” “should,” “will,” and variations of such words or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are neither forecasts, promises nor guarantees, and are based on the current beliefs of ImmunityBio’s management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210520005394/en/
Investors
844-696-5235, Option 5
Salutem
978-360-3151
Katie.Dodge@salutemcomms.com
Source: