Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (AIM:FARN, OTC:FPHAF) has been given the green light by regulators in the US and Finland to begin an early-stage clinical trial of its immuno-oncology drug candidate.
Bexmarilimab will be used alongside the standard-of-care treatments in people with blood cancers such as relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, and chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia.
The BEXMAB phase I/II study will look at tolerability in order set the optimal dosing level for the phase II evaluation of the asset.
Researchers will also assess as secondary objectives how the drug interacts with the body alongside the immune response prompted by the treatment.
Patient recruitment will take place in the coming weeks.
Bexmarilimab has been developed to downregulate, or lower levels of the Clever-1 gene, allowing the immune system to better identify and kill cancer cells.
"Research has shown a clear survival benefit among certain blood cancer patients with low Clever-1 expression, a receptor known to be expressed on immunosuppressive macrophages in the tumour microenvironment,” said Marie-Louise Fjällskog, Faron’s chief medical officer.
No details were provided on when investors could expect to see a read-out from the phase I/II trial.