Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNCR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergic diseases and cancer, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in XmAb20717-01 (DUET-2), a Phase 1, first-in-human, clinical trial of XmAb®20717, a bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets PD-1 and CTLA-4 immune checkpoints for the treatment of multiple advanced solid tumors.
“Built on the scaffold of Xencor’s XmAb® bispecific Fc domain, XmAb20717 is the most advanced candidate in our suite of tumor microenvironment activators,” said Paul Foster, M.D., chief medical officer at Xencor. “The dual blockade of PD-1 and CTLA-4 with XmAb20717 may promote superior T cell activation and proliferation compared to anti-PD-1 alone, and we look forward to studying its safety, tolerability and therapeutic activity in clinical trials.”
By the end of 2018, Xencor expects to file Investigational New Drug applications for two additional tumor microenvironment activators including XmAb®23104, a PD-1 x ICOS bispecific antibody, as well as XmAb®22841, a CTLA-4 x LAG-3 dual checkpoint inhibitor.
DUET-2 is a Phase 1 multiple-dose, dose-escalation study that will characterize the safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, immunogenicity and preliminary anti-tumor activity of intravenous administration of XmAb20717 in patients with selected advanced solid tumors. For more information about DUET-2 please visit to https://clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT03517488).
