Medicenna Announce First Patient with Advanced Solid Tumours Dosed in ABILITY-1 Study of MDNA11 Combination with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab)
Medicenna Therapeutics Corp., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company announced the first patient dosed in the combination arm of the Phase 1/2 ABILITY study evaluating MDNA11, a long-acting, “beta-enhanced not-alpha” interleukin-2 (IL-2) super-agonist, with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab). The combination portion of the study is designed to evaluate the potential for a synergistic effect of MDNA11 with KEYTRUDA® in patients with advanced solid tumors.
“Dosing the first patient in the combination arm with MDNA11 and KEYTRUDA® is a significant milestone for Medicenna and are excited with the progress of our novel IL-2 superkine," said Fahar Merchant, PhD, President and CEO of Medicenna. “By combining MDNA11 with KEYTRUDA®, we are building upon the promising data generated to date by MDNA11 as a single agent. Targeting the PD1/PD-L1 pathway in addition to MDNA11’s differentiated mechanism of action is expected to further stimulate and restore the patient’s immune system, which should result in improved antitumoral activity and patient outcomes. We are thrilled to enter this new phase of development of MDNA11 and further demonstrate its potential in combination with the world’s best-selling drug.”
90% of all cancers manifest as solid tumors and although CPI therapies have shown promising advances in some types of immunosensitive cancers, more than 70% of patients do not respond to or become resistant to such therapies. MDNA11, with its uniquely differentiating ‘beta-enhanced not-alpha’ features, continues to be a potential best-in-class next-generation IL-2 super-agonist for treatment of advanced solid tumors. Pre-clinical data published in JITC in 2022 demonstrated that mice receiving both, MDNA11 and checkpoint inhibitors achieved complete and sustained tumor control even after multiple rechallenges, demonstrating the capacity for MDNA11 to sensitize solid tumors to checkpoint blockade1.
The ABILITY-1 Study is actively recruiting patients with different types of recurrent or metastatic solid tumors at multiple sites in the USA, Canada, Australia, and South Korea and is expected to initiate patient enrolment in Europe. Preliminary results from both the monotherapy expansion and combination escalation and expansion arms of ABILITY-1 the study will be available in H1 and H2 2024.
KEYTRUDA® is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA.