Benzinga | Mar 29, 2021 07:46AM EDT

Adagene Announces Clinical Advancement for ADG116

Adagene Inc. (NASDAQ:ADAG), a platform-driven, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to transforming the discovery and development of novel antibody-based immunotherapies, today announced the interim dose-escalation data up to 0.3 mg/kg in its ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial in Australia evaluating the safety and tolerability of ADG116 in patients with advanced/metastatic solid tumors. ADG116 is a fully human, anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody (mAb), designed to target a unique conserved epitope of CTLA-4 and utilizes Adagene's proprietary NEObody platform technology. ADG116 is designed to balance safety and efficacy through a novel mechanism of action; ADG116 maintains its original physiological function via partial blocking of CTLA-4 ligand binding, and in conjunction, depletes Treg in the tumor microenvironment via strong antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).

Interim data for the ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial:

* Safety: Analysis of all safety data generated to date demonstrates that ADG116 has been well-tolerated in more than 10 patients with no dose-limiting toxicities or unexpected safety signals. No drug related Grade 3 and Grade 4 toxicities have been observed.

* Notable findings in pharmacodynamics: A dose-dependent change in CD8+ and CD4+ TEM / Treg ratios, important pharmacodynamic (PD) biomarkers indicating immune activation, was observed for patients dosed by ADG116. In particular, a patient, refractory to prior pembrolizumab therapy (> 25 cycles), demonstrated striking increases in T and NK cells, and CD8+ and CD4+ TEM / Treg ratios. The Grade 1 treatment-related pruritus of this patient is a clinical symptom consistent with immune-mediated action of ADG116 treatment.

* Pharmacokinetics: The terminal half-life of ADG116 was within the normal range of IgG1 based antibodies.

* Clinical proof of mechanism: The Phase 1 dose escalation data demonstrates the clinical proof of mechanism for ADG116 in targeting CTLA-4, consistent with preclinical observations for the potency of ADG116 starting from 0.03 to 0.3 mg/kg.

"We are encouraged by the positive PD marker signals and safety data," said Peter Luo, Ph.D., Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Adagene. "It is particularly striking to observe immune activation biomarkers at 0.03 mg/kg, especially in the patient refractory to prior pembrolizumab therapies. We believe ADG116 has the potential to overcome the limitations of anti-CTLA-4 checkpoint inhibitors, extending the market potential beyond current anti-CTLA-4 inhibitors in both monotherapy and combination settings. Our highly differentiated anti-CTLA-4 therapeutics hold the potential to improve the clinical benefits by expanding clonal diversity, infiltrating into cold tumors, and treating patients resistant/refractory to current immuno-therapies."

"We look forward to developing a comprehensive clinical program to evaluate each of our anti-CTLA-4 assets," continued Dr. Luo. "We will leverage the modality-specific features demonstrated in the preclinical setting, that enable high-fidelity translation into the clinic by targeting unique, highly conserved epitope of CTLA-4 with broad species cross-reactivity. We remain committed to maximizing the full potential of our unique anti-CTLA-4 approach."

The progression of the Phase 1 dose-escalation trial to the 5th dose, a 0.3mg/kg dose level, builds on encouraging signs of PD markers, normal PK data, strong early clinical data, extensive preclinical and safety tolerability data and a successful Safety Review Committee meeting. Multiple clinical sites are currently open in Australia. In this ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of ADG116 in patients with advanced/metastatic solid tumors, no dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), treatment-related serious adverse events (SAEs), colitis or hepatitis have been observed. With favorable clinical data to date, Adagene looks forward to expanding the ongoing global Phase 1 trial, with the acceptance of revised study protocol by FDA to expand the trial in the U.S. Adagene has also obtained confirmation from China NMPA to proceed with revised protocol submission at higher starting dose than that in the original submission. Additional information about this clinical trial is available at ClinicalTrials.gov using the identifier: NCT04501276.