Roche gets oncology boost with cancer vaccine
pharmafile | May 16, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | ASCO, Roche, bladder cancer, oncology
Roche’s most advanced experimental cancer immunotherapy has had impressive results in a small Phase I trial, reducing tumour size in half of the patients.
In data to be fully revealed at the ASCO meeting later this month – where cancer immunotherapies will be well-represented – MPDL3280A will be shown to have shrunk the tumours of ten out of 20 advanced bladder cancer patients with PD-L1 positive tumours by at least 30 per cent.
Sandra Horning, Roche’s chief medical officer, tells Reuters: “A 50% response rate is quite remarkable and it certainly compares favourably with what we and others have seen with immunotherapy for other tumour types.”
With specific advances in bladder cancer few and far between in recent years, Roche’s head of global medical affairs oncology, Niko Andre, says he is particularly excited about the new data on MPDL3280A.
The median time to response in this Phase I trial was 43 days, and Horning says: “To see an early response with immunotherapy is a very notable finding.”
Anti-PDL1 therapies block signals from the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) – signals which help tumours avoid detection by the body’s immune system.
This should in turn boost the chances of patients’ immune systems combating cancer, and this mechanism means successful cancer immunotherapy candidates are likely to be big sellers.
Earlier this week MedImmune signed a deal with Incyte to combine its investigational anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, MEDI4736, with Incyte’s oral indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibitor, INCB24360.
The AstraZeneca subsidiary also began a late-stage trial of MEDI4736 in non-small cell lung cancer last week.
Among Roche’s other highlights at ASCO are data from two anti-CD20 medicines MabThera/Rituxan (rituximab) and Gazyva (obinutuzumab).
There will also be interim results of a phase 1b study of the Bcl-2 inhibitor GDC-0199/ABT-199 in combination with rituximab in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
And news is expected of a Phase II study of polatuzumab vedotin, an anti-CD79b antibody drug conjugate in non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Adam Hill
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