Cancer trial delivers ‘notable’ results
Leeds pharmaceutical business 4D Pharma has revealed “notable” results from the first phase of a trial it is running on cancer patients with solid tumours.
The trial with 12 patients suffering from renal cell cancer and lung cancer is “extremely encouraging”, the company said.
Dr Alex Stevenson, co-founder and chief scientific officer at 4D pharma, said: “The disease control rate observed in part A of the study, at 42%, far exceeds the 10% threshold for success agreed with our partner MSD for the cohort expansion phase, boding well for the outcome of the ongoing Part B of the study.”
Investors responded positively to the announcement, with shares in the AIM-listed business rising 30% in early trading. The share price had dropped from 100p in February to below 25p in mid-March, when the market slumped as Covid-19 arrived in the UK. This morning’s rise takes it back to the February levels and gives the business a market value of £130m.
Last month 4D pharma raised £7.7m through a share placing to fund the development of its research and give it “the best opportunity to build upon the exciting developments announced to date”.
The trial achieved a disease control rate of 42%, with five of 12 patients experiencing a “clinically meaningful benefit” from the combination.
Three patients experienced partial responses, defined as target tumour shrinkage of 30% or greater, while the conditions of two other patients stayed stable for more than six months.
Tthere were no serious side-effects and no patients stopped using the drugs, which is seen as “particularly significant” given the trade-off that commonly exists between treatment and quality of life for cancer patients.
Dr Alex Stevenson
Stevenson added: “This is ground-breaking for the microbiome in immuno-oncology. Considering the advanced stage of disease of the patients in the study, end of line patients who have previously failed on a checkpoint inhibitor and have little to no remaining treatment options, these results are very promising.
“We believe that, while this is a small study, these efficacy and safety results in such a difficult-to-treat population are notable.”
4D pharma was founded in 2014 and is a world leader in the development of live biotherapeutics, which are medicines that are produced from biological sources such as living organisms rather than synthesised chemicals.
Its treatments are single strains of bacteria that are naturally found in the healthy human gut. The company has six clinical studies in progress which are focused on irritable bowel syndrome, pancreatic cancer, asthma and Covid-19.
