
Jumping aboard the Claudin18.2 bandwagon
When earlier this month the Chinese company Dragon Boat Pharmaceutical received the green light to begin human trials of an anti-Claudin18.2 antibody it joined numerous others pursuing this pharmacological approach. A month ago Carsgen enrolled the first patient into its potentially registrational phase 2 gastric cancer study of CT041, an anti-Claudin18.2 Car-T project, while Innovent dosed the first human subject with IBI389, a Claudin18.2-targeting T-cell engager. Shortly afterwards this nascent though burgeoning field was endorsed by Astrazeneca, which handed across $25m up front for rights to Harbour Biomed’s HBM7022, another T-cell engager MAb. The only other big pharma group with a presence in Claudin18.2 is Amgen; its MAb AMG 910 still has an active clinicaltrials.gov listing, but it no longer appears in the group’s R&D pipeline. Claudin18.2 is thought to be overexpressed on some cancers, in particular gastric and pancreatic, and it is noteworthy that many, but not all, clinical trials set expression of this protein as an inclusion criterion. Evaluate Pharma identifies no fewer than 17 assets in the clinic, many owned by Asian developers, the most advanced of which is Astellas’s zolbetuximab.
Selected Claudin18.2-targeting projects | |||
---|---|---|---|
Project | Company | Mechanism | Indication |
Phase 3 | |||
Zolbetuximab/ IMAB362 | Astellas Pharma | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve gastric/GEJ cancer |
Phase 2 | |||
TST001 | Transcenta Holding | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve biliary tract cancer |
CT041 | Carsgen Therapeutics | Anti-Claudin18.2 Car-T | Claudin18.2+ve pancreatic adenocarcinoma |
Phase 1 | |||
SPX-101 | Sparx Therapeutics | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Solid tumours |
AMG 910 | Amgen | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve gastric/GEJ cancer |
BNT141 | Biontech | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve solid tumours |
NBL-015 | Novarock Biotherapeutics | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Solid tumours |
CPO102 | CSPC Pharmaceutical | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Pancreatic & gastric cancers |
RC118 | Remegen | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Solid tumours |
AB011 | Carsgen Therapeutics | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve solid tumours |
CMG901 | Keymed Biosciences | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb-drug conjugate | Claudin18.2+ve gastric & pancreatic cancers |
BA1105 | Luye Pharma | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve solid tumours |
BC008 | Dragon Boat | Anti-Claudin18.2 MAb | Claudin18.2+ve solid tumours |
LB1904/ LCAR-C182A | Legend Biotech | Anti-Claudin18.2 Car-T | Claudin18.2+ve gastric & pancreatic cancers |
Q-1802 | Qurebio | Anti-Claudin18.2 x PD-L1 bispecific MAb | Solid tumours |
TJ-CD4B/ TJ033721 | I-Mab | Anti-Claudin18.2 x 4-1BB bispecific MAb | Solid tumours |
IBI389 | Innovent | Anti-Claudin18.2 T-cell engager MAb | Solid tumours |
Preclinical | |||
BC007 | Dragon Boat | Anti-Claudin18.2 x CD47 bispecific MAb | Not specified (IND filing 2022) |
PT886 | Phanes Therapeutics | Anti-Claudin18.2 x CD47 bispecific MAb | Gastric & pancreatic cancers (IND filing Q2 2022) |
HBM7022 | Harbour Biomed/ Astrazeneca | Anti-Claudin18.2 T-cell engager MAb | Gastric & pancreatic cancers |
ABP-150 | Abpro | Anti-Claudin18.2 T-cell engager MAb | Gastric cancer |
BNT212 | Biontech | Anti-Claudin18.2 Car-T | Solid tumours |
Source: Evaluate Pharma, clinicaltrials.gov & company filings. |