HONG KONG – China’s Lianyungang-based Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd. has obtained approval from Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to begin a phase III trial for a combination therapy of its PD-1 inhibitor candidate camrelizumab and VEGFR-2 inhibitor rivoceranib.
Following a patient’s death in Poseida Therapeutics Inc.’s phase I trial of P-PSMA-101 in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), the FDA has put the study on clinical hold.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Acepodia, Aligos, Arrowhead, Clovis, Deciphera, Follicum, GSK, Immatics, Immunicum, Immutep, Intravacc, Maxcyte, Novartis, Organicell, Poseida, Telix, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ultimovacs, Vanda.
Shares of Unity Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ:UBX) fell 66.6% to $4.15 on Aug. 17 after UBX-0101, its one-time lead candidate, failed to best a placebo on an established measure of osteoarthritis pain in a phase II study.
Chinese state-backed vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG), of Beijing, published an interim analysis of randomized phase I/II trials of its inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week.
Earlier this month, an update on phase I/IIa data rolled out from Rockville, Md.-based Regenxbio Inc. with RGX-314 for age-related wet macular degeneration (AMD). The company has a pivotal program in subretinal delivery of the compound set to start by the end of this year, and questions about routes of administration – always an issue in AMD – continue to simmer.
HONG KONG – Following FDA approval of its IND, Israel-based Kahr Medical Ltd. is set to start a phase I/II trial of lead product DSP-107, a second-generation CD47- and 41BB-targeting compound. The move puts Kahr among a number of companies working on drugs against checkpoint molecule CD47.
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Abbvie, Algernon, Azurrx, Bio-Path, Cerecor, Debiopharm, Gyroscope, Novo Nordisk, Treadwell, Viela.