Sichuan Kelun Botai Biomedicine Co., Ltd.

CHENGDU, China, Oct. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The new drug application (NDA) (the " Application") based on the positive results from the pivotal phase III OptiTROP-Lung04 study of sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT, formerly SKB264/MK-2870) developed by Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (the "Company") was accepted by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China in adult patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who progressed after treatment with EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy. OptiTROP-Lung04 is a multi-center, randomized, registrational phase III clinical study that evaluates the efficacy and safety results of sac-TMT monotherapy versus pemetrexed plus platinum chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with EGFR-mutant locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC who progressed after treatment with EGFR- TKI therapy. At a pre-specified interim analysis, sac-TMT monotherapy demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) as assessed by the blinded independent review committee (BIRC) compared with pemetrexed plus platinum chemotherapy. Sac-TMT also showed a manageable safety profile, with no unexpected safety signals identified. The Application is the third NDA for sac-TMT that has been accepted by the NMPA. On October 25, 2024, it was announced on the official website of the CDE that the Application was planned to be included in the priority review and approval process of the CDE. Previously, two NDAs for sac-TMT in patients with locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have received at least two prior systemic therapies (at least one of them for advanced or metastatic setting) and for sac-TMT monotherapy in adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutant NSCLC who experience progression following treatment with an EGFR-TKI and platinum-based chemotherapy, respectively, were accepted by the NMPA. Sac-TMT, a core product of the Company, is a novel human trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2) antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) in which the Company has proprietary intellectual property rights, targeting advanced solid tumors such as NSCLC, breast cancer (BC), gastric cancer (GC), gynecological tumors, among others. Sac-TMT is developed with a novel linker to conjugate the payload, a belotecan-derivative topoisomerase I inhibitor with a drug-to-antibody-ratio (DAR) of 7.4. Sac-TMT specifically recognizes TROP2 on the surface of tumor cells by recombinant anti-TROP2 humanized monoclonal antibodies, which is then endocytosed by tumor cells and releases KL610023 intracellularly. KL610023, as a topoisomerase I inhibitor, induces DNA damage to tumor cells, which in turn leads to cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. In addition, it also releases KL610023 in the tumor microenvironment. Given that KL610023 is membrane permeable, it can enable a bystander effect, or in other words kill adjacent tumor cells. In May 2022, the Company licensed the exclusive rights to MSD (the tradename of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA) to develop, use, manufacture and commercialize sac-TMT in all territories outside of Greater China (includes Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan). Dr. Micheal Ge, CEO of Kelun-Biotech, said, "sac-TMT (sacituzumab govitecan) has received its third NDA. In response to unmet clinical needs, the company has always adhered to the spirit of hard work inherent in Kelun, focusing on original innovation and doing practical work to develop new drugs with differentiated advantages and international potential. We believe that sac-TMT will shine in the field of oncology and contribute Chinese strength to the global health cause." About Kelun-Biotech Kelun-Biotech (6990.HK) is a holding subsidiary of Kelun Pharmaceutical (002422.SZ), which focuses on the R&D, manufacturing, commercialization and global collaboration of innovative biological drugs and small molecule drugs. The company focuses on major disease areas such as solid tumors, autoimmune, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, and in establishing a globalized drug development and industrialization platform to address the unmet medical needs in China and the rest of world. The Company is committed to becoming a leading global enterprise in the field of innovative drugs. At present, the Company has more than 30 ongoing innovative projects in major disease areas such as solid tumors, autoimmune, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, including over 10 projects in the clinical stage and 4 projects in the NDA stage with several global trials being conducted simultaneously in multiple countries, including China, Europe, and the United States. The company has established one of the world's leading proprietary ADC platforms, OptiDC™, and has 5 ADC projects in the clinical stage (2 of which are in the NDA stage) and several projects in the preclinical stage. For more information, please visit . SOURCE Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

Following a disappointing confirmatory clinical trial, Gilead Sciences has officially decided to withdraw its product Trodelvy from the bladder cancer treatment market in the United States. The decision was announced Friday by the California-based biotechnology company after extensive discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This directly affected the accelerated approval status of Trodelvy in a specific patient population - those with advanced urothelium carcinoma who had previously received PD-1/L1 inhibitors and chemotherapy. Gilead emphasized that despite the setbacks in bladder cancer, Trodelvy remains effective in other indications for breast cancer in the United States. The divestment did not come without warning. Back in May, Gilead had already heralded the substandard results of the troics-04 study, which was intended as a confirmative trial for Trodelvy in bladder cancer. Specifically, the TROP2-directed antibo-drug conjugate failed to demonstrate efficacy over conventional chemotherapy in extending survival in certain bladder cancer patients. So far, details about the failed test have not been made public. Looking back at history, Trodelvy received approval for a bladder cancer treatment in 2021 based on positive data from a single-arm Phase 2 clinical trial. At that time, the drug triggered a tumor response in 27.7 percent of patients, with 5.4 percent achieving a complete response and a median response duration of 7.2 months. Gilead's chief financial officer, Andrew Dickinson, noted during the company's second-quarter earnings call in August that bladder cancer treatment is a relatively small part of Trodelvy's many indications, contributing less than 10% of sales. The first-of-its-kind TROP2 ADC drug generated $320 million in sales for Gilead in the three months ended June. It is important to note that Trodelvy's failure in the bladder cancer field was not an isolated incident, it came on the heels of the failure of another key trial, the IUX-01 study. Trodelvy also failed to achieve significant results in a trial comparing chemotherapy with second-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As a result of the setback, Gilead took a $2.4 billion impairment charge. Trodelvy's performance has been highly anticipated as a core asset in Gilead's $21 billion acquisition of Immunomedics in 2020. The successive failures of two important trials have certainly clouded Trodelvy's prospects. Once upon a time, Trodelvy was expected to be the cornerstone of Gilead's solid tumor franchise. However, as competitors such as Astrazeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, Merck and Kelun Biotech advance their respective TROP2 ADCs and pursue extensive Phase III programs, Trodelvy's first-mover advantage is gradually being eroded. Looking ahead, Trodelvy's next major milestone will be the results of the IUX-03 trial. The trial is evaluating Gilead's drug in combination with Merck's PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda in patients with NSCLC with high PD-L1 expression. The trial started in February 2023 and is expected to be primarily completed in January 2027. At the same time, with the shift in first-line bladder cancer treatment options - particularly Keytruda in combination with Pfizer and Astellas Nectin-4 ADC drug Padcev in favor - Trodelvy's exit from the bladder cancer space is particularly notable. This shift has sparked a new round of discussion about Trodelvy's status as a PD-1/L1 inhibitor and post-chemotherapy treatment. Faced with an increasingly stringent regulatory review environment by the FDA, biopharmaceutical companies often tend to act quickly after the failure of confirmatory trials to withdraw expedited approval of related products. There have been several examples of this trend in recent years: GlaxoSmithKline withdrew its multiple myeloma ADC from Blenrep just days after its Phase 3 trial failed; Takeda voluntarily withdrew its lung cancer drug Exkivity about two months after receiving negative confirmation; And last month Pfizer abruptly pulled its sickle cell drug Oxbryta from global shelves over safety data.

CHENGDU, China I September 28, 2024 I From September 25 th to 29 th , the 27th China Clinical Oncology Congress and the 2024 CSCO Annual Meeting were held in Xiamen. Experts and scholars in the field of oncology from all over China gathered together to discuss the hotspots at the forefront of clinical practice. Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Kelun-Biotech”, 6990.HK) presented multiple clinical research results and progress of TROP2 ADC sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT, formerly SKB264/MK-2870) at the conference. TNBC On the afternoon of September 27, Academician Binghe Xu from the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences gave an oral presentation and paper discussion on the results of the Phase III OptiTROP-Breast01 study of sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) in patients (pts) with previously treated locally recurrent or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in the Innovative Drugs Clinical Data Session. The median PFS assessed by BICR was 6.7 months (95% CI, 5.5 to 8.0) with SKB264 and 2.5 months (95% CI, 1.7 to 2.7) with chemotherapy; The sac-TMT group had a 68% reduction in risk of disease progression or death compared to the chemotherapy group (HR 0.32; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.44; P <0.00001). In the subset of pts with TROP2 H-score > 200, the median PFS was 8.3 months with SKB264 and 2.3 months with chemotherapy (HR 0.29; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.46). The median OS was not reached (95% CI, 11.2 to NE) with SKB264 and 9.4 months (95% CI, 8.5 to 11.7) with chemotherapy. The sac-TMT group had a 47% reduction in risk of death compared to the chemotherapy group (HR 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.78; P =0.00005). Compared to the investigator’s choice of chemotherapy, sac-TMT for metastatic TNBC patients showed statistically and clinically significant improvements in PFS and OS, with a manageable safety profile, and could be a new and effective therapeutic option for this group of patients. Binghe Xu said, “Breast cancer is a highly prevalent malignant tumor in the world, threatening women’s lives and health, among which, triple-negative breast cancer is also known as ‘the most toxic’ breast cancer due to its poor therapeutic effect. The future direction of advanced triple-negative breast cancer treatment is precise and stratified treatment. Sac-TMT can help to meet more treatment needs of patients, and may be expected to become the new standard of second-line treatment for advanced triple-negative breast cancer in the future. For the research and development of ADC, domestic enterprises have gone through the stages of catching up and running parallel to each other, and now they have become an important force in the global ADC innovation technology, and we believe that one day, patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer can get more effective treatment through ADC innovative drugs.” NSCLC On the afternoon of September 28, Prof. Wenfeng Fang from the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University orally reported the results of the Phase II OptiTROP-Lung01study, a first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with sac-TMT in combination with KL-A167, an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, in the session of Clinical Data of Innovative Drugs, with a paper discussion. Pts with treatment naive advanced NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations were enrolled to receive SKB264 5 mg/kg Q3W + KL-A167 1200 mg Q3W (cohort 1A，130 Pts) or SKB264 5 mg/kg Q2W + KL-A167 900 mg Q2W (cohort 1B,133 Pts) in a non-randomized manner. After median follow up of 14.0 mo and 6.9 mo for cohort 1A and 1B, the ORR was 48.6% (18/37, 2 pending confirmation), DCR was 94.6% and median PFS was 15.4 mo (95% CI: 6.7, NE) with 6-mo PFS rate of 69.2% for cohort 1A ; the ORR was 77.6% (45/58, 5 pending confirmation), DCR was 100% and median PFS was not reached with 6-mo PFS rate of 84.6% for cohort 1B. Prof. Wenfeng Fang said, “The emergence of ADC drugs is epoch-making. The dual-drug regimen of sac-TMT combined with immunotherapy is leading a new direction in the exploration of first-line treatment for advanced NSCLC, with very stunning efficacy observed in the preliminary study data. In the future, the potential for the application of sac-TMT in the treatment of NSCLC is worth looking forward to, and sac-TMT is expected to provide diversified treatment options and better survival benefits for more patients, both in the driver-negative and EGFR-mutated patient populations.” CC On the morning of September 28, Professor Jing Wang from Hunan Cancer Hospital orally reported the results of Efficacy and Safety of sac-TMT Plus Pembrolizumab in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer. Pts with R/M CC who had progressed on or after platinum-doublet chemotherapy and received no more than 2 systemic therapies for R/M disease were enrolled.38 pts were treated and followed up for at least 17 weeks or 2 tumor assessments. The median follow-up was 6.2 mo, The ORR was 57.9% (22/38, 3 unconfirmed), with 3 complete responses. Responses were also observed in pts were pre-treated with anti-PD-1 based therapy. Median PFS was not reached and 6-mo PFS rate was 65.7%. Professor Jing Wang said, “Cervical cancer highly expresses TROP2, and previous studies have suggested that the overexpression ratio is more than 90%. High TROP2 expression is closely related to the poor prognosis of tumor patients, and it may also be related to the sensitivity of some drug therapies, which makes it a good target to explore. It is believed that with these promising results, more studies will emerge in the field of gynecologic oncology in the future to further validate these findings and bring hope to a wider range of cancer patients.” EC/OC On the morning of September 28, Dr. Zhuo Yang from Liaoning Provincial Cancer Hospital shared the results of safety and efficacy of sac-TMT in pts with previously treated advanced endometrial carcinoma (EC) and ovarian cancer (OC) from a Phase 2 Study. In the endometrial cancer cohort, 44 EC pts were enrolled and median follow-up time was 7.2 mo. 52.3% of pts had received ≥ 2 prior lines of therapy. The ORR was 34.1% (15/44, 12 confirmed) and DCR was 75%. Median PFS was 5.7 mo (95% CI: 3.7, 9.4) with 6-mo PFS rate of 47.5%. 40 OC pts were enrolled and median follow-up time was 28.2 mo. All pts had received ≥ 2 prior lines of therapy (80% of pts ≥ 3 prior lines). 87.5% of pts were platinum-resistant. The ORR was 40% (16/40, 14 confirmed) and DCR was 75%. mPFS was 6.0 mo (95% CI: 3.9, 7.3); mo was 16.5 mo (95% CI: 10.7, NE). In the pts with TROP2 IHC H-score > 200 (n=13) or H-score ≤ 200 (n=22), the ORR was 61.5% (8/13, 7 confirmed) and 27.3% (6/22, 6 confirmed) respectively. In the pts with platinum-resistant (n=35), mPFS was 6.0 mo (95% CI: 5.3, 7.3) and mOS was 16.1 mo (95% CI: 10.5, NE). Prof Danbo Wang said, “Ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer have their own epidemiological characteristics, and the incidence rate of endometrial cancer in developed cities in China is increasing year by year, and it may become the top gynecological malignant tumor in Chinese women in the future. In contrast, ovarian cancer is characterized by insidious onset, high late detection rate and high mortality rate. Exploring new therapeutic strategies to overcome platinum resistance and improve the survival rate of ovarian cancer patients is a key direction for future research. Sac-TMT shows great potential in the treatment of advanced endometrial and ovarian cancers. It has not only achieved remarkable results in terms of efficacy, but also well controlled safety. I believe that in the future research and application, it will become a leader in the field of ADC innovative drug development and bring new hope to more gynecological oncology patients.” With a caring heart, Kelun-Biotech is committed to solving unmet clinical needs in China and around the world. By focusing on its own technological strengths, Kelun-Biotech is able to provide patients in China with novel ADC drugs with significant clinical value and excellent cost-effectiveness, and to enhance the benefits for clinical patients. In the future, we will continue to accelerate the R&D and clinical progress of our drug candidates, enhance our integrated drug development capabilities, and contribute to the realization of Healthy China 2030. SOURCE: Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co.