The Asco starting gun fired up Adaptimmune this morning, with shares in the UK cell therapy company almost doubling. After years of glacial movement the developer’s engineered T-cell receptor projects now appear to be making progress, and a stake has been put in the ground regarding first launch: 2022, for ADP-A2M4 in synovial sarcoma. New data at Asco on the Mage-A4-targeted therapy include a 50% (8/16) response rate in this cancer, although this includes one unconfirmed partial remission recorded after data cut-off. Still, evidence that these responses are durable is emerging, to the extent that Adaptimmune now considers the Spearhead-1 trial registrational, though whether this has been agreed by regulators is not immediately clear. In a prerecorded presentation executives said interactions with agencies had been "productive and supportive”. Press-released data, not scheduled for Asco, also helped give the stock a boost. Three of four patients treated with Adaptimmune's next-gen Mage-A4 project ADP-A2M4CD8 have responded, while a separate AFP-targeted therapy, ADP-A2AFP, achieved a complete response in liver cancer. Three other patients treated with ADP-A2AFP failed to respond, but it seems that today Adaptimmune investors are focusing on the positives.
| Finally making progress? Adaptimmune's Asco update | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project (target) | Trial | January update | Asco clinical update | Asco strategy update |
| ADP-A2M4 (Mage-A4) | Spearhead-1 | - | 44% ORR in synovial sarcoma, mDOR 28 weeks. | Trial to become registrational for sarcoma; targeting launch 2022 |
| Multi-tumour trial | 2 PRs (1 unconfirmed) in rectal mucosal melanoma & H&N cancer | 1 new confirmed PR in lung cancer | ||
| Spearhead-2 | Trial in combination with Keytruda in H&N to start later this year | |||
| ADP-A2M4CD8 (Mage-A4) | Surpass | 1 PR (unconfirmed) in EGJ | Previous EGJ PR ongoing at 6 months; additional unconfirmed PRs in EGJ and H&N; 1 non-response | Trial to focus on lung, EGJ, H&N and bladder cancers; data to be presented in H2 |
| Trial in EGJ planned for H1 2021 | ||||
| ADP-A2AFP (Alpha-fetoprotein) | NCT03132792 | 1 confirmed PR in liver cancer | Liver PR converted to CR, ongoing at week 24; 3 further non-responders, 2 in HCC | Data to be presented at ILC in August 2020 |
| PR = partial response. CR = complete response. EGJ = oesophagogastric junction cancer. H&N = head & neck. Source: company press release. | ||||
Adatimmune presentation.
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