Benzinga -
- Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS) announced the publication of an abstract for a poster presentation of early clinical data on the bispecific antibody petosemtamab in advanced gastric/esophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting.
- The company has decided to pause further clinical exploration of the GEA cancer cohort.
- Petosemtamab has demonstrated promising clinical activity among pretreated gastric/esophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) patients, Merus said.
- Given the strong clinical activity observed in this cohort, the company plans to prioritize investigating petosemtamab in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
- As of an October 24, 2022, data cutoff date, 14 previously treated GEA patients were treated with petosemtamab 1500 mg (IV) every two weeks.
- One patient with tumor epidermal growth factor receptor protein overexpression and gene copy number amplification showed a confirmed sustained partial response (67% tumor reduction; response ongoing after 24 cycles).
- Three patients had stable disease, with 2%, 17%, and 40% tumor reductions.
- The company also published the first look at updated data from the dose-expansion portion of Phase 1/2 study of petosemtamab in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
- As of the data cutoff in the abstract of November 28, 2022, 42 patients were evaluable for response, with an ORR of 35.7% reported (15/42), including one complete response (CR) and two unconfirmed partial responses (uPRs, treatment ongoing).
- 15 patients had stable disease and a disease control rate of 71.4%
- The median duration of response at the cutoff was six months, and the median progression-free survival was 5.0 months.
- William Blair writes that the response rate comes in well above double the rate of monotherapy response rate (13%) observed with Eli Lilly And Co's (NYSE: LLY) Erbitux (cetuximab).
- The analyst writes that the results will increase confidence in the clinical profile of petosemtamab.
- Price Action: MRUS shares closed higher by 11.40% at $20.75 on Friday.
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