MedPacto's Third Global Joint Clinical Trial... "Operational Agreement with Fred Hutchinson"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] MedPacto, a biomarker-based innovative drug development company, announced on the 22nd that it has signed a joint clinical trial operation agreement with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a world-renowned cancer research institute in the United States.

Accordingly, MedPacto will jointly conduct a U.S. clinical trial with Fred Hutchinson administering a combination of the anticancer drug currently under development, Vactosertib (TEW-7197), and AstraZeneca's immuno-oncology drug Impfinzi (active ingredient: durvalumab) to patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer in advanced or recurrent stages.

In particular, Fred Hutchinson possesses the ION (Immune Oncology Network), the largest cancer immunotherapy research network in the U.S. MedPacto plans to utilize this to conduct multicenter clinical trials at prominent cancer research institutes and major university hospitals across the United States.

Prior to this, MedPacto received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December last year for a Phase 2 clinical trial plan for combination therapy of Vactosertib targeting bladder cancer.

This is the third time MedPacto is conducting joint clinical trials with global pharmaceutical companies, following combination therapy clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer conducted domestically since 2018 with the same therapeutic agent, and domestic combination clinical trials targeting gastric and colorectal cancers with MSD's Keytruda in the U.S. Combination therapy refers to using two or more drugs together to enhance the therapeutic effect of anticancer drugs.

MedPacto plans to start clinical administration within the first half of the year at Fred Hutchinson and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center. The company also explained that AstraZeneca will provide the drug costs required for this clinical trial.

Vactosertib is a drug that selectively inhibits the signaling of transforming growth factor TGF-β, known as a major mechanism that impedes the therapeutic effect of immuno-oncology drugs.

Since Vactosertib improves the tumor microenvironment to enable immune cells to attack cancer cells, MedPacto expects that combination therapy with immuno-oncology drugs will increase response rates and therapeutic effects.

This clinical trial will focus on observing how much the response rate can be improved by administering a combination of Vactosertib and Impfinzi to patients who did not respond or only partially responded to existing immuno-oncology drugs. It is known that the response rate was about 20% when immuno-oncology drugs were administered alone to patients with advanced bladder cancer.

Kim Sung-jin, CEO of MedPacto, said, "This joint research with world-class research institutions and pharmaceutical companies is a great opportunity to elucidate the role of TGF-β in cancer immunotherapy," adding, "We will do our best to elicit sustained and effective responses in cancer patients."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.