Benzinga | Oct 18, 2021 08:17AM EDT

I-Mab Announces IND Approval For Phase 2 Clinical Trial Of Efineptakin Alfa In Combination With PD-1 Therapy In China

I-Mab (the "Company") (NASDAQ:IMAB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel biologics, today announced that the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved the IND submission for the initiation of phase 2 clinical trial of efineptakin alfa (also known as TJ107/GX-I7/NT-I7) in combination with PD-1 antibody in patients with advanced solid tumors, including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) as well as head and neck cancers.



Efineptakin alfa is the world's first and only long-acting recombinant human interleukin-7 (rhIL-7) developed as a T lymphocyte-booster for cancer-related immunotherapy. Efineptakin alfa is expected to show therapeutic effect as a combination therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors due to its inherent properties to increase T-cells that are critical for tumor suppression. Treatment with efineptakin alfa has distinct advantages over other cytokines such as human IL-2 that have a narrow therapeutic window and cause serious adverse effects.

Efineptakin alfa has been tested as monotherapy and in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to treat advanced solid tumors in the U.S., South Korea and China. According to the data from the NIT-110 dose-escalation study presented at ASCO 2021, the combination of efineptakin alfa and pembrolizumab is safe and well-tolerated in patients with advanced solid tumors. It significantly increased T cell numbers in both the tumor microenviroment and the peripheral blood. At the SITC 2020, data from the phase 1b/2 Keynote-899 study (NCT03752723) have shown that simultaneuous treatment of efineptakin alfa at 1200?g/kg with pembrolizumab (Keytruda(r)) induced 27.8% ORR in patients with metastatic TNBC. In addition, interim results from the phase 1 trial (NCT03687957) in high-grade gliomas unresponsive to chemoradiotherapy showed a 1.3 -- 4.1 fold increase in the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) with a one-year survival rate of 83.3%.[1] Further, a China phase 1b trial (NCT04001075) in patients with advanced solid tumors will soon complete to facilitate further development of efineptakin alfa.

"Efineptakin alfa is the first rhIL-7 for cancer treatment and underscores I-Mab's commitment to innovation. Oriented by patients' needs, we look forward to initiating this important trial to accelerate the clinical development and deliver a potentially transformative solution to patients," said Dr. Joan Shen, CEO of I-Mab.