Incyte And Genentech To Investigate Combo Immunotherapy

Delaware-based biopharmaceutical firm Incyte announced that it will collaborate with Roche company Genentech to assess the combination of its investigational oral indoleamine dioxygenase-1 (IDO1) inhibitor INCB24360 together with Genentech's PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor MPDL3280A in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Both drugs are immunotherapies that recruit and boost the body’s defenses against cancer. NCB24360 is an orally bioavailable small molecule that has been found to boost T lymphocyte and dendritic cells, as well as natural killer cell responses in vitro. Incyte has forged collaborations with a number of pharmaceutical companies to investigate the drug in combination therapies. These include partnerships with Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AstraZeneca’s biologics R&D arm MedImmune.

Anti-PDL1 MPDL3280A is an experimental antibody that interferes with the protein Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) and activates tumor-detecting/infiltrating T cells. The drug’s mechanism of action enables the immune cells to detect and destroy tumor cells. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Designation to MPDL3280A. In May, Genentech posted positive results for the drug in a Phase I study showing that it shrank tumors in 43 percent of patients that were previously treated for metastatic urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) and whose tumors were characterized as PD-L1 positive.

As part of the collaboration agreement, Genentech and Incyte will work on a non-exclusive basis to evaluate the potential combination of the two immunotherapies. Incyte will lead the study, the results of which will guide future clinical development of the combination. No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed by either company.

Hervé Hoppenot, President and CEO of Incyte, said that the agreement expedites the company’s investigation of the IDO1 inhibitor’s therapeutic potential. “We believe the combination of INCB24360 with other novel immunotherapies represents a promising new approach to treating cancer, and research collaborations such as this have the potential to accelerate our understanding and support our goal of addressing the needs of patients with a wide range of cancers.”