Post by icemandios on Dec 6, 2023 20:28:54 GMT
I got hooked on the reference to "obesity target for solid tumors" reference, so I read the following:
December 6, 2023 10:03 AM EST
R&DGerman biotech’s efforts to revive obesity target for solid tumors yield positive PhIIa results
Ayisha Sharma
News Reporter
CatalYm’s solid tumor candidate, which targets a protein previously explored in obesity, has boosted responses in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor in an early-stage trial. The results pave the way for the next stage of controlled studies in earlier lines of disease.
The Phase IIa GDFATHER-2 trial is evaluating the German biotech’s visugromab plus an immune checkpoint inhibitor in more than 200 subjects with seven different late-line advanced solid tumors.
Visugromab is a monoclonal antibody designed to neutralize growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), a central mediator of immune resistance to cancer therapies. GDF-15 was previously explored in obesity R&D, with companies such as Amgen, Merck and Eli Lilly attempting to make analogs of the compound to induce weight loss. But that approach largely failed, and Amgen was the last of the three companies to give up on the target back in 2022.
Later, in 2022, CatalYm stepped into the GDF-15 space with a new approach in mind with an eye to entering the oncology market. The German biotech raised €50 million ($49 million) in a Series C round to support a more “aggressive” approach to Phase II development of visugromab.
In the Phase IIa, in 27 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), visugromab plus Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo attained a 14.8% objective response rate (ORR) according to what the company described as “maturing data” presented on Wednesday at the ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress in Geneva, Switzerland. The ORR was higher in the subset of patients with non-squamous disease at 21.1%. The treatment also achieved a 14.8% ORR in urothelial carcinoma (UC) patients.
In another data point, duration of response surpassed 11 months in non-squamous NSCLC and 10 months in UC. Just over 5% of the 174 patients enrolled had a treatment-emergent adverse event higher than Grade 3.
Based on these results, CatalYm plans to start randomized Phase IIb studies of visugromab plus immune checkpoint inhibitors and standard of care in earlier lines of disease in the first half of 2024.
[Enter any appropriate GODFATHER-2 quote here____________.] 
