BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ: BGNE; HKEX: 06160), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative molecularly-targeted and immuno-oncology drugs for the treatment of cancer, announced today that the first patient was dosed in a Phase 3 clinical trial of tislelizumab, an investigational anti-PD-1 antibody, combined with chemotherapy, as a potential first-line treatment in China for patients with Stage IIIB or IV squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Tislelizumab is also being studied in global Phase 3 trials in solid tumors, including second-line NSCLC, first-line hepatocellular carcinoma, and second-line esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; two global Phase 2 trials in previously treated advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and relapsed/refractory mature T- and natural killer-cell lymphomas; a Phase 3 trial in China in non-squamous NSCLC; and two pivotal Phase 2 trials in China in relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma and second-line urothelial cancer.
“With the start of this important Phase 3 trial in China for patients with squamous NSCLC, our broad development program for tislelizumab, an advanced immuno-oncology therapy, continues to make great progress in China and globally. More than 1,500 patients have been enrolled in clinical trials with tislelizumab over the past three years, and we are excited to evaluate its potential when combined with both paclitaxel and carboplatin, the worldwide standard of care, or nab-paclitaxel (ABRAXANE®) and carboplatin, a newer regimen which has not yet gained approval in China but is approved in other geographies,” commented Amy Peterson, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for Immuno-Oncology at BeiGene.
“Despite some recent developments, available data indicate that outcomes in patients with squamous NSCLC may be worse than those in patients with other forms of lung cancer. As shown by most recent data with other checkpoint inhibitors, combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy consisting of platinum and paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel improves anti-tumor activity and significantly improves outcomes for patients with advanced squamous NSCLC. This Phase 3 study, in addition to our Phase 3 first line trial in China for patients with non-squamous NSCLC, will assess the impact of tislelizumab given in combination with chemotherapy, as a potential way to improve outcomes in Chinese patients with advanced lung cancer, for whom prognoses are typically quite poor,” commented Lai Wang, Ph.D., Head of China Development at BeiGene.
The Phase 3, open-label, multi-center trial is expected to enroll approximately 340 chemotherapy naïve patients with Stage IIIB or IV squamous NSCLC in mainland China who will be randomized to receive i) carboplatin and paclitaxel, ii) carboplatin, paclitaxel and tislelizumab, or iii) carboplatin, nab-paclitaxel (ABRAXANE, which is commercialized by BeiGene in China) and tislelizumab. The trial is designed to compare progression-free survival (PFS) as assessed by the Independent Review Committee (IRC) per RECIST v1.1. Key secondary endpoints include overall survival, overall response rate, duration of response, PFS by investigator assessment, and safety and tolerability.
