BioNTech's OncoC4 partnership off to good start with mid-stage trial
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[June 03, 2023]
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -BioNTech said on Friday that a new cancer
immunotherapy candidate that it is working on with U.S. partner OncoC4
Inc was shown to shrink tumours in close to 30% of participants in a
mid-stage lung cancer trial.
The experimental drug, known as gotistobart, was tested on patients with
metastatic non-small cell lung cancer which could no longer be helped by
a group of so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs such as Merck & Co's
Keytruda.
A follow-on trial in the third and last phase of testing typically
required for approval would start in the third quarter of this year,
BioNTech added in its statement.
In the trial with 27 patients, 29.6% saw the disease improve, and 70.4%
saw the disease improve or remain stable.
BioNTech, with billions of euros in cash from its COVID-19 vaccine
alliance with Pfizer, is eager to brush up its credentials in new
oncology drugs, which is its traditional focus.
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The logo of BioNTech is seen in Marburg,
Germany, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
BioNTech and OncoC4's drug is a
so-called anti-CTLA-4 antibody, the same immunotherapy drug class as
AstraZeneca's Imjudo, or tremelimumab, which won its first approval
last October after years of disappointing trial results.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Friederike Heine)
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