Active Biotech announces positive interim data from an ongoing study with tasquinimod in heavily pre-treated patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma

Lund, May 26 2023 – Active Biotech (NASDAQ Stockholm; ACTI) announces today that tasquinimod, when given as monotherapy or in combination with ixazomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone (IRd), has a favourable safety profile in heavily pre-treated patients with a median of 8 previous lines. All 15 patients included in this interim readout were previously refractory to IMiDs, Proteasome Inhibitors (PIs) and CD38 mAbs.

With single agent tasquinimod three patients with progressive disease at study entry had stabilization of disease while on study. Of 5 patients treated with tasquinimod in combination with IRd, one patient (20%) has a durable partial response ongoing since April 2022, despite being previously refractory to ixazomib-pomalidomide and carfilzomib-pomalidomide combinations. No dose limiting toxicity was seen in the combination with tasquinimod at 1mg daily after a one week run in at 0.5 mg daily.

“These are promising early safety and efficacy results for tasquinimod in patients with multiple myeloma. We are especially encouraged by our patient with a durable partial response to tasquinimod in combination with IRd. This patient’s myeloma was previously refractory to two PI/IMiD combinations and was therefore very unlikely to respond to the IRd backbone, suggesting that the response is attributable to the addition of tasquinimod. We also have not observed any increased toxicity or new safety concerns when combining tasquinimod with IRd. We are enthusiastic to accrue additional patients to the combination therapy cohort,” says Dr. Dan Vogl, Principal Investigator.

The results will be presented in a poster session at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Annual Meeting in Chicago, 2-6 June.

The study (NCT04405167) which is conducted at Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA is ongoing in the dose-escalation cohort investigating the safety, tolerability, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of tasquinimod in combination with (IRd). Enrolment into the study continues and an expansion cohort will start once the MTD is established.

The abstract is available online on https://meetings.asco.org/ from May 25 at 5:00 PM (ET).

Details on the presentation:

  • Abstract Title: Phase 1 study of tasquinimod, an S100A9 inhibitor, alone and in combination with IRd for relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM)
  • Session Title: Hematologic Malignancies – Plasma Cell Dyscrasia
  • Abstract Number: 8042
  • Session Date and Time: June 5, 2023, 8:00 AM-11:00 AM (ET)