25th Jul 2019 11:26
(Alliance News) - 4d Pharma PLC on Thursday announced positive preclinical data on lead biotherapeutic candidate MRx0518 and the identification of a new candidate as well.
The new candidate, MRx1299, is a second-generation live biotherapeutic intended to treat cancer through its inhibition of histone deacetylase. Histone deacetylase inhibition, 4d Pharma said, "is thought to have multiple modes of anti-cancer activity".
Alex Stevenson, chief scientific officer at 4D Pharma, said: "The identification of our new live biotherapeutic candidate, MRx1299, strengthens our leading oncology portfolio and expands the scope of oncology indications for our live biotherapeutics. MRx1299 has a different mechanism of action to MRx0518 and as such may be suitable for the treatment of different types of cancer. Studies of MRx1299's efficacy in preclinical models of additional tumour types are ongoing, as is scale-up and process development."
Meanwhile, candidate MRx0518, has produced strong immune responses in living organisms and in test tube studies. New data suggests an orally administered form of the candidate can "modulate the frequency of immune cell populations with anti-tumour activity in the gastrointestinal tract" and act "through signalling pathways known to drive anti-cancer immunity".
Stevenson said: "The additional preclinical data on MRx0518 strengthens our knowledge of its mechanism of action and capacity to launch an immune response against cancer cells. In parallel, data generated from our ongoing clinical studies will assess the ability of MRx0518 to induce these anti-tumour immunological effects in patients. Our phase 1/2 study of MRx0518 in combination with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in patients with solid tumours will provide us with specific biomarker data from both parts of the study. We anticipate the first of this data to be available by the end of 2019."
Shares in 4d Pharma were down 1.1% at 93.95 pence on Thursday.
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