Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘rucaparib’

A phoenix rises from the ashes

A phoenix rises from the ashesResilience in purpose and openess in strategic direction are key dual features in the DNA of strong biotechs which succeed in the long run and live to survive the roller coaster ride that is oncology R&D.

Setbacks are to be expected, but what matters more is not that they happen, but the mettle and toughness to deal with them over time.

There is no doubt Clovis Oncology encountered a major setback with the abandonment of rociletinib in lung cancer, while the rise of PARP inhibitors meant they were well placed with the rucaparib development.

Beyond these events, what next?

It’s time to take a bigger picture look at what’s happening with the pipeline and where they might be heading since there could be some surprises in store…

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ESMO20 Preview 4 – Targeted therapies to watch out for

Not in Madrid – with the global pandemic continuing to exert a significant effect on the cancer conference season, the annual meetings continue apace virtually.

Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid

For this year’s ESMO meeting we have already covered immunotherapies, both early and late stage pipeline highlights and now it’s time to explore what to watch out for over the weekend on the early to mid stage targeted therapy front.

The good news is there is some potentially practice changing data being presented, as well as some novel approaches in preclinical development emerging. These should be hitting the clinic in the near to medium term future.  On the other extreme is the more common problem whereby a few agents are showing signs of not holding up to their early promise/hype.

Let’s now take a look at what we can learn in the fourth and final ESMO Preview for 2020…

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Flying high in the DDR oncology niche

Recently, PARP inhibitors have been back in the news for several reasons, including the publication of the olaparib (AstraZenca/Merck) advanced mCRPC data in the New England Journal of Medicine from the phase 3 PROfound trial and the announcement regarding achievement of the key secondary endpoint of overall survival. As Dr José Baselga quite rightly noted, this is very good news indeed because:

“Overall survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has remained extremely challenging to achieve.”

We’ve rather more trial misses in this disease setting than successes from various therapies over the last few years including ipilimumab, PROSTVAC, alisertib, and atezolizumab, to name a few off the top of my head.

Related to mCRPC, let’s also not forget the upcoming PDUFA date later this month for Clovis’s rucaparib in the very same indication.

Not to be outdone on the PARP front, just a few days GSK received FDA approval for niraparib as first-line monotherapy maintenance therapy for women with platinum-responsive advanced ovarian cancer – regardless of biomarker status – based on the phase 3 PRIMA study presented at ESMO last year and simultaneously published in the NEJM. Recall that the majority of women (51%) had homologous-recombination deficiency (HRD) and this subset saw the greatest benefit.

Flying high in the DDR space?

We have now seen clinical benefit in the PARP inhibitors in four tumour types driven by DNA damage repair (DDR) deficiencies, namely ovarian, breast, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.

How do we go about extending the concept of DDR in terms of the biology of other tumour types?

A number of related pathway targets have been investigated, including ATM/ATR, Chk1, Wee–1 and others, with mixed success.

It’s not the nature of oncology R&D to stand still, however; what if we could turn things on their head and think creatively about the problems still to be addressed?

One particular new company to the PARP space is doing just that… so what are they doing and what’s different about their approach?

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PARP inhibition in metastatic prostate cancer

Who’s King of the PARP castle?

After yesterday’s review and expert commentary on the phase 3 PROfound trial presented in the Presidential Session at ESMO 2019, we’re continuing our look at PARP inhibitors in advanced prostate cancer.

Perhaps surprisingly, there were a lot of insights to be found in the posters that were presented and discussed at the meeting for other PARPs in clinical development.

How do these stack up against olaparib? We’re not fans of cross-trial comparisons as they always come with a mandatory health warning, but if you want to consider the emerging landscape, it is important to be aware of the different patient populations, lines of therapy, and details of the trial designs.

For additional perspective at ESMO19, we spoke to a European prostate cancer expert who kindly talked about his clinical practice and also offered insights into a PARP clinical trial he and colleagues presented in Barcelona.

Who will be King of the PARP castle in advanced prostate cancer?

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Crossing the Rubicon

We’ve heard much about the role of PARP inhibitors in ovarian and breast cancers where there is sensitivity to these agents in women with DNA damage repair defects, but what about advanced prostate cancer?

Following the publication of the phase 2 trial TOPARP in the NEJM in 2015, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the outcome of a series of phase 3 studies with these agents in metastatic prostate cancer in multiple different lines of therapy.

Dr Oliver Sartor at ESMO19

Following on from our daily coverage from ESMO in Barcelona last week where we looked at some of the pros and cons as they appeared during the presentation by Dr Maha Hussain (Chicago) from the PROfound trial, it’s time to share some expert opinions.

The study she presented evaluated the PARP inhibitor, olaparib, versus next generation AR anatgonists abiraterone or enzalutamide in refractory metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).  Interestingly, it soon became rapidly clear that many casual observers missed some important nuances from the myriad of top-line news articles and summaries.

The devil, as always, is in the details.

To further our readers education on this important topic, BSB interviewed a prostate cancer thought leader, Dr Oliver Sartor (right) for his personal perspectives and look at the take homes from the lens of an experienced triallist in this niche.

Let’s see what he had to say about PARP inhibitors in advanced prostate cancer, as well as the PROfound and TRITON studies…

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ESMO19 Preview 2 – Targeting Synthetic Lethality and Immune Response in GU malignancies

We’ve been writing about PARP inhibitors since 2006!  Who knew this target would have multiple legs over a dozen years on?

Barcelona

In this post we’re taking a look at some of the noteworthy presentations at ESMO19 around targeting DNA damage repair (DDR) and how they act through synthetic lethality and/or the generation of immune response to kill cancer cells in GU cancers.

It’s a fascinating area where we are seeing convergence between immunotherapy and genomic instability, one of the hallmarks of cancer.

The abstracts for ESMO19 are not yet available, so in this post we’re only providing context and setting the scene for some of the presentations we are looking forward to, as well as raising some key questions that we hope will be answered in Barcelona.

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Ten Underrated ASCO19 abstracts

Chinatown Chicago

One of the things we try to do on BSB is tread paths that aren’t well travelled.

It’s a bit like coming to Chicago and visiting areas such as Chinatown that are beyond the common tourist sights. It can take a bit of effort, but often delivers a memorable experience in the process.

In this final preview of #ASCO19 before the educational sessions start tomorrow, we’re offering up 10 abstracts that we think are underrated and noteworthy of closer attention.

Like any guide book our recommendations are subjective, but if you’d like to read more then subscribers can login or you can purchase access.

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Going beyond PARP inhibitors to improve cancer outcomes

DNA Damage Repair (DDR) has come a long way over the last decade or so from preclinical development through clinical trials, including some notable failures along the way. What began initially with PARP inhibitors, has now expanded into other related targets in the pathway, including ATM/ATR, WEE–1, Chk1/2, DNA-PK, and even Fanconi anemia genes such as FANCA/BC/D1, BRIP1 and PALB2, which are considered an indication of BRCAness where there is also chromosomal instability and homologous recombination.

Top 10 DDR targets and molecules at AACR19

At AACR last week, there was plenty to learn about in the ever-expanding DDR niche in terms of new data from a relatively new target such as DNA-PK to updated clinical data on WEE–1 and Chk1 inhibition to early data on PARP in a new tumour type to add to the growing list of ovarian, breast, and prostate cancers that are impacted by DDR therapies.

Included in this post are 10 key targets or molecules in the DDR niche that are of potential interest to readers – we explain why we included them and why the data matters.

Here we take a look at the highlights that we came across in this mini review, which should be useful preparation ahead of yet more clinical data likely being presented at ASCO and ESMO later this year.

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Why are the SOLO1 data so compelling?

Dr Moore at ESMO18

At the recent European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO18) Congress in Munich, arguably the data of the meeting – if the audience reaction is anything to go by – were the results from the phase 3 SOLO1 trial that were presented by Dr Kathleen Moore (right).

The results were simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine in an article entitled: “Maintenance Olaparib in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Advanced Ovarian Cancer” (Link).

As Moore and colleagues note in the abstract:

“After a median follow-up of 41 months, the risk of disease progression or death was 70% lower with olaparib than with placebo (Kaplan–Meier estimate of the rate of freedom from disease progression and from death at 3 years, 60% vs. 27%; hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.30; 95% confidence interval, 0.23 to 0.41; P < 0.001).”

Dr Moore is an Associate Professor of gynecologic oncology and the Jim and Christy Everest Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center.  She kindly spoke to BSB after her presentation in the Presidential Symposium.

In addition to Dr Moore’s personal commentary on what these results mean for women with ovarian cancer, we also have some additional insights on what this data may mean for other players in the PARP space such as Tesaro and Clovis.

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ESMO18 Live Blog Day 1

Munchen – ESMO18 is finally here, sadly not at the same time as Oktoberfest!

The last time I was in Munich (for the Triple meeting in 2016 where TLRs and RIG-1 were a thing in early drug development), getting to the conference centre at Messestadt West from the Hilton was an absolute doddle – fast and efficient, as you would expect from the Germans, with only one simple change and little waiting around on chilly platforms.  Getting back in the rush hour was another matter entirely, as one was either over tired or the trains were mostly going out of town not into it, and to add insult to injury it was bitterly (freezing) cold in November.  Yes, I was on a train on the right line, but heading in the wrong direction at least once, sigh.  I blame the distorted announcements squawked in German only, apparently alerting unsuspecting punters of crucial platform changes 😉

For those of you heading to the conference centre by train/subway, look out for the red U2 line, direction Messestadt Ost at the end of the line:

En route to Messestadt Ost at the end of the red U2 line

Meanwhile, on to the crucial business matters… we usually do live running daily blogs at JPM in January and ASCO in June, where they are most popular, there’s a massive amount of news and data and thus well received.

At ESMO this year there is a tremendous amount of data to uncover, review, and discuss, so it seemed like a good opportunity to repeat the experiment, not least because there will be too much information to summarise at the end of each day, plus sleep is always a premium at cancer conferences.

This year will be jam packed with KOL interviews, trial readouts and analysis, commentary and perhaps even the occasional lighthearted whimsy… rock on!

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