Immunomedics expands clinical collaboration with AstraZeneca to include metastatic NSCLC

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The clinical collaboration between Immunomedics Inc. and AstraZeneca and MedImmune for the development of Imfinzi (durvalumab) and sacituzumab govitecan combination therapy has been broadened to include second-line metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, the companies said.

“The combination study with durvalumab, together with our internal efforts to further develop sacituzumab govitecan monotherapy, will help us define the best registration strategies in NSCLC within accelerated timelines,” said Robert Iannone, head of research & development and chief medical officer of Immunomedics.

As CPIs increasingly move into front-line therapy, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, treatment options for second-line and beyond are limited to single agent chemotherapies, which have only very modest activity. Thus, there is a high unmet need in NSCLC for patients who don’t respond or have progressed after treatment with CPIs.

Sacituzumab govitecan as monotherapy has produced an overall response rate of 19 percent in 47 patients with pretreated metastatic NSCLC with a duration of response of 6.0 months. In a subgroup of patients (14 of 47 patients) who had previously been treated with CPIs as their last line of therapy, ORR was 14 percent (2/14).

This open-label, multi-center phase I/II study will enroll two cohorts of patients, one in CPI primary refractory, and one in acquired resistance to CPI.

Sacituzumab govitecan, Immunomedics’ most advanced product candidate, is a novel, first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate. It is currently under priority review by the FDA for accelerated approval as a treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have received two prior therapies for metastatic disease. If approved, sacituzumab govitecan would be the first and only ADC approved for the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Durvalumab is a human monoclonal antibody that binds to PD-L1 and blocks the interaction of PD-L1 with PD-1 and CD80, countering the tumor’s immune-evading tactics and releasing the inhibition of immune responses.

As part of a broad development program, durvalumab is being investigated as monotherapy and in combination with IO, small molecules, and chemotherapies across a range of tumors and stages of disease.

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The University of California, San Francisco and global oncology communities mourn the death of Felix Y. Feng, MD, a radiation oncologist and a leading figure in genitourinary cancer research. A professor of radiation oncology, urology and medicine, and vice chair of translational research at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Feng died from cancer on Dec.10, 2024. He was 48.
The late Felix Feng, MD (center) with researchers Jonathan Chou, MD, PhD (left) and Lisa Chesner, PhD (right), in 2019.Photo by Noah BergerFelix Y. Feng, a genitourinary cancer research leader, died on Dec. 10, 2024. He was 48.This article is republished with permission by NRG Oncology.Dr. Feng was the former NRG Oncology Genitourinary Cancer Committee chair and an RTOG Foundation member. After years of dedicated and enthusiastic commitment to the NRG and previously the RTOG Genitourinary Cancer Committee, chairing or co-chairing 13 research protocols for NRG and RTOG, Dr. Feng was appointed committee chair in March 2018, following in the footsteps of Dr. Howard Sandler, his mentor. Dr. Feng was also a member of the RTOG Foundation Board of Directors.

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