Redx, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel, small molecule, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and fibrotic disease, announced preclinical data for its lead fibrosis asset, RXC007, and the Discodin Domain Receptor (DDR)1/2 discovery programme.
The data were from preclinical models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, as current standard of care.
The study
RXC007, in combination with gemcitabine/Abraxane in metastatic and high-extra cellular matrix (ECM) patient-derived PDAC models, was shown to increase survival compared to single agent standard of care alone. The combination of RXC007 with standard of care provided a significant increase in median survival days from date of treatment in a dose dependent manner. These new data on RXC007 complement those also presented at the meeting by collaboration partner the Garvan Institute of Medical Research on REDX10616, a close analogue of RXC007.
These data show REDX10616, in combination with FOLFIRINOX, re-sensitised a FOFIRINOX-resistant patient derived xenograft (PDX) model to treatment and led to a striking increase in survival in combination with the standard of care triplet chemotherapy. Taken together, these data provide a strong rationale for the potential of ROCK2 inhibition in combination with standard of care as a potential treatment for cancer-associated fibrosis.
Redx plans to further investigate this treatment setting with the company’s next-generation ROCK2 inhibitor, RXC007, in the clinic.
Additionally, further data were presented from Redx’s DDR1/2 programme in combination with anti-PD-1 in TNBC models. Using a tool DDR1/2 inhibitor, in combination with anti-PD-1, in the TNBC E0771 model resulted in a statistically significant increase in survival when compared to the control group, an effect not observed with either single agent alone.
Official comment
Caroline Phillips, Senior Vice President Biology, Redx Pharma commented: “These data, presented in hard-to-treat preclinical models, highlights the multiple opportunities for our lead asset RXC007. RXC007 is a highly selective, next-generation, ROCK2 inhibitor, currently in Phase IIa clinical studies for IPF, which has shown significant potential in other disease areas which we are excited to pursue in the future. Taken together with the data from our DDR1/2 programme currently in lead optimisation, this provides support for new mechanisms to provide treatments for cancer-associated fibrosis which has been associated with poor prognosis in several cancers.”
