Benzinga | Sep 16, 2021 07:01AM EDT

ALX Oncology Announces Initiation Of Investigator-Sponsored Trial of Evorpacept In Patients with Indolent And Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

ALX Oncology Holdings Inc., ("ALX Oncology") (NASDAQ:ALXO), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing therapies that block the CD47 checkpoint pathway, today announced the initiation of a Phase 1/2 investigator-sponsored trial of evorpacept (also known as ALX148), a next generation CD47 blocker, in combination with rituximab and lenalidomide for the treatment of patients with indolent and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma ("NHL"). This study is being led by Dr. Paolo Strati at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center ("MDACC"), one of the largest multidisciplinary programs in the U.S. for treating NHL.



"We are excited to launch this study that builds upon the promising anti-tumor activity and tolerability observed from ASPEN-01, ALX Oncology's Phase 1b study to investigate the combination of evorpacept and rituximab in patients with advanced relapsed and refractory NHL," said Paolo Strati, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Lymphoma-Myeloma and Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, MDACC. "NHL remains a difficult-to-treat cancer and patients are in desperate need for more therapeutic options to help improve disease outcomes. From a mechanistic perspective, the combination of a CD47 blocker and rituximab, as well as the combination of lenalidomide and rituximab, have demonstrated clinical activity against NHL. As these doublet combinations act through different but synergistic mechanisms, and have non-overlapping individual toxicity profiles, we anticipate the triplet combination of evorpacept, rituximab and lenalidomide will positively impact efficacy without increasing toxicity."