PureTech has company in galectin-9

LYT-200, which PureTech recently spun into the wholly owned subsidiary Gallop Oncology, will soon no longer be the industry’s only clinical-stage antibody targeting galectin-9. That’s because FibroGen hopes to start patient enrolment into a first-in-human solid tumour study of the similarly acting FG-3165 in the second half, having this week had its IND cleared. This might test FG-3165 combined with Libtayo, under a clinical trial supply agreement with Regeneron. An aggressive push into oncology is part of FibroGen’s plan to draw a line under a troubled past, and the group plans to file an IND next year for a trial combining Libtayo with FG-3175, a MAb against the hot new oncology target CCR8. OncologyPipeline shows no other industry assets targeting galectin-9, a protein thought to play an immunosuppressive role, signalling through immune checkpoints including Tim3, Vista and PD-1, whose blockade might enhance tumour cell killing. PureTech has so far only seen LYT-200 activity in combination with BeiGene’s Tevimbra, where at last year’s ESMO-IO conference it reported one partial and one complete response among four head and neck cancer patients. A combo in three urothelial cancer subjects, and LYT-200 monotherapy in 13 with various tumours, yielded no responses. 

Industry MAbs against galectin-9

Source: OncologyPipeline.