UK biotech firm Redx Pharma PLC (AIM:REDX) has unveiled promising additional results from preclinical trials of its lead fibrosis drug, RXC007, and its Discodin Domain Receptor (DDR)1/2 discovery programme.
The former first: RXC007, used alongside conventional chemotherapy and immunotherapy, demonstrated improved survival rates in preclinical models of pancreatic cancer and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the company said.
The drug, when combined with gemcitabine/Abraxane, a chemotherapy treatment, led to an increased survival rate in aggressive pancreatic cancer models compared to chemotherapy alone, Redx told investors.
The same trends were observed when a similar drug, REDX10616, was combined with a different chemotherapy regime, FOLFIRINOX. The combined treatment led to an impressive increase in survival, even in a model resistant to FOLFIRINOX.
These results suggest that inhibiting ROCK2, a protein involved in various cellular functions, in combination with standard cancer therapies, could be a potential treatment for cancer-related fibrosis, which has been linked to poor prognosis in several cancers, the drug developer noted.
Caroline Phillips, Redx's senior vice president of biology, said: "These data, presented in hard-to-treat preclinical models, highlight the multiple opportunities for our lead asset RXC007.
"RXC007 is a highly selective, next-generation, ROCK2 inhibitor, currently in Phase 2a clinical studies for IPF, which has shown significant potential in other disease areas that we are excited to pursue in the future.
"This provides support for new mechanisms to provide treatments for cancer-associated fibrosis which has been associated with poor prognosis in several cancers."
In addition, Redx presented data from its DDR1/2 programme, which, when combined with an immunotherapy drug, anti-PD-1, led to a significant increase in survival in TNBC models.
The new detailed information from both studies was unveiled at the Resistant Tumour Microenvironment symposium in Vancouver, Canada.