Incyte inks trial collab with Calif. cancer firm

Incyte, a global biopharmaceutical company based in Wilmington, has entered into a collaboration with Mirati Therapeutics on a cancer drug trial. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS

WILMINGTON – Biopharmaceutical firm Incyte announced Monday that it has signed a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with a California-based firm to study the combination of their drugs in treating a subset of cancer patients.

Mirati Therapeutics, a publicly traded, San Diego-based clinical-stage targeted oncology company, will supply its drug Adagrasib, a small-molecule inhibitor that targets the KRAS G12C protein, to be used with Incyte’s INCB99280, a small-molecule inhibitor that targets the PD-L1 protein.

Under the terms of the agreement, Incyte will initiate and sponsor the Phase 1/1b study of the drug combo in patients diagnosed with specific types of non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer and other solid tumors. Mirati will supply Incyte with Adagrasib for the study.

“While monoclonal antibodies targeting PD‑L1 or PD-1 have transformed the treatment landscape in oncology, they are limited by their route of administration and long-half life and receptor occupancy which can affect the management of immune-related adverse events,” said Dr. Lance Leopold, Group vice president of clinical development hematology and oncology at Incyte, in a statement announcing the collaboration. “Incyte’s small molecule, oral PD-L1 program has shown promising safety and efficacy in early studies – INCB99280’s shorter half-life may result in improved management of immune mediated adverse events and better clinical outcomes.”

Mirati submitted Adagrasib to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in a February new drug application and reported promising results in September from clinical trials in cancer patients. The addition of Incyte’s drug may also help response rates of patients.

“We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Incyte, supplying Adagrasib for evaluation in combination with INCB99280,” said Dr. Charles Baum, president, founder and head of research and development at Mirati Therapeutics. “This agreement is part of our rational combination strategy for Adagrasib and further demonstrates our focus to evaluate this asset in a broad range of combinations, including with novel approaches to checkpoint inhibition, to benefit people living with difficult-to-treat cancers.”

For Incyte, the Mirati trial marks the second trial collaboration for the year, after it partnered with Pfizer and MorphoSys in June to research a drug combination to treat a subset of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.