Immutep has revealed encouraging initial clinical data from two trials investigating its lead product candidate eftilagimod alpha in non-small-cell lung cancer.
Findings from the trials were shared at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting 2022.
The INSIGHT-003 trial is evaluating eftilagimod alpha as part of a triple combination therapy with standard-of-care anti-PD-1 therapy and chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC.
The initial clinical data show that the approach is well-tolerated and provides promising early signals of therapeutic activity, with an Objective Response Rate (ORR) of 72.7% and a Disease Control Rate (DCR) of 90.9%. Notably, 81.8% of patients had a PD-L1 Tumour Proportion Score (TPS) of <50%.
Prof Dr Salah-Eddin Al-Batran, Scientific Lead of the INSIGHT study, noted: “Efti has accumulated an excellent safety profile to date, driving its high suitability for combination with standard-of-care therapies to address areas of unmet need for cancer patients. INSIGHT-003 represents the first triple combination therapy consisting of efti plus anti-PD-1 and chemo, and we are pleased with these promising, early results.”
The TACTI-002 PD-L1 Phase II trial is evaluating the drug in combination with MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in patients with 1L NSCLC.
Wade T Iams, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Division of Hematology/Oncology stated: “The encouraging ORR, PFS and DCR presented today at SITC build on the promise of efti, a first-in-class soluble LAG-3 protein, to uniquely engage the innate and adaptive immune system to enhance the clinical effect of pembrolizumab.
“Responses in TACTI-002 were seen across all PD-L1 expression levels and histologic types, including in patients with PD-L1 TPS less than 50%. The deep and durable responses driven by efti plus pembrolizumab continue to be favourable with median DoR of 21.6 months.”
