Apexigen's CD40 agonist shows response in pancreatic cancer
Over half of metastatic pancreatic cancer patients treated with Apexigen's APX005M as part of a combination regimen that included Opdivo nivolumab had a response, suggesting that the combination along with SOC could provide a new treatment option to an indication with little in the armamentarium.
An interim analysis of a Phase Ib trial for the regimen were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting on Sunday. In the study, the overall response rate was 54% among 24 patients who received either the triplet of APX005M from Apexigen Inc. (San Carlos, Calif.) plus standard of care gemcitabine and Abraxane nab-paclitaxel or a quad regimen that also included Opdivo. The responses included 11 confirmed partial responses and 2 unconfirmed PRs. The quad regimen produced the highest responses with 8 PRs among 12 patients treated with two different dose levels for an ORR of 67%...