Drug developer Amplia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ATX) has announced the enrolment of 26 patients as part of its clinical trial – dubbed ‘ACCENT’ – to test the use of its drug narmafotinib in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.
The patients were enrolled for interim analysis to take part in the Phase 2a section of the ACCENT trial, which will consider the use of narmafotinib in conjunction with standard-of-care chemotherapy for people who have this cancer.
Narmafotinib has been developed by Amplia’s as an inhibitor of the protein FAK, which is over-expressed in pancreatic cancer and a drug target gaining increasing attention for its role in solid tumours.
The company completed an earlier phase (or Phase 1b) of testing in November 2023, which showed that the drug could be given orally at 400 mg per day in the days leading up to regular chemotherapy infusion treatment, and this was safe and well tolerated by patients.
In Phase 2b, this same dosing regimen will be applied to test the efficacy of this drug.
CEO and managing director Dr Chris Burns said that moving through another phase of testing was a notable achievement for Amplia.
“The recruitment of our 26th patient is an important milestone for the company,” he said.
“With 26 patients enrolled, and based on experience to date, we believe that the outcome from the interim analysis will be reported around the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2024.
“Imaging data for the first patients from this cohort is now being collated and efficacy signals to date mirror the positive data previously reported from the Phase 1b stage of the trial.”
At 11:32 AEDT, Amplia was trading at 6.5 cents, a rise of 6.56 percent since the market opened.