Acceleron Pharma and Gsk present first-in-Human trials data on American Association for cancer research meeting 2011

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Citeline, the world leading research authority on pharmaceutical clinical trials and intelligence recently reviewed the results from different first-in-human clinical studies that were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 102nd Annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Two abstracts pulled in particular the importance of Oncology, senior analyst, Dr. Rachel Meighan-Mantha.

"I found both Acceleron Pharma's ACE-041, a fusion protein that Activin Receptor-Like Kinase 1 (ALK-1) mediated angiogenesis and GlaxoSmithKline of GSK1120212, MEK1/MEK2 inhibitor inhibits, to beof particularinterest, with the first aim a target new cancer and the second focused on a more established road."

ACE-041mediates angiogenesis by binding to the ALK-1 BMP ligands, 9 and 10. "It is currently being studied in a phase I trial in patients with advanced solid tumors or multiple myeloma, and a phase II study in endometrial cancer is scheduled with the Gynecologic Oncology Group," Dr. Meighan-Mantha comments. "ACE-041 is considered first in its class in the clinic for BMP 9 and 10 inhibition, however, it's not the first in the clinic for the inhibition of angiogenesis via ALK-1 antagonism-Pfizer has a monoclonal antibody (PF-03446962) focused on the ALK-1-receptor under phase I evaluation in advanced solid tumors."

GlaxoSmithKline of MEK1, MEK2 inhibitor/GSK1120212 acts on MAPK/ERK Kinase a more established cancer target. The first-in-human trial for this drugbegan in 2008, and since then the company started several more phase I and II trials in different indications, and a phase III trial in melanoma, according to data from the TrialTrove.

"Interesting, below are three phase I trials evaluation of GSK1120212 in combination with other GSK research drugs, including inhibitors of B-raf Kinase, PI3 Kinase and Protein Kinase B," comments Susan Citeline Danheiser, the Senior Director for Oncology and Analytics. "Although it was until recently quite rare, evaluation of novel-novel drug combinations seems an increasingly popular strategy in Oncology clinical development".

During the Conference, data on first-in-human trials evaluating drugs with more targets such as ErbB-3, the Hedgehog pathway, inhibitors of Apoptosis (IAP established) including Survivin, and MAPK/ERK Kinase (MEK) were also highlighted. A summary of the current development profile of these objectives, based on data in the Pipeline and TrialTrove drugs, is shown below.

Citeline analysis: profile of the development of Select Drug Targets with first-In-Human data presented at AACR 2011

Drug Target-Drugs in pre-clinical development in oncology drug development-most advanced clinical trials phase-number of industry sponsors

-ErbB-3 5-8-II-28-7

Hedgehog Pathway -5-7-III-48-8

IAP -4-8-III-37-9

MEK -3-17-III-93-15

Survivin -2-5-II-32-6

Source:
Citeline