Merrimack Unveils Its Latest Antibody-Directed Nanotherapeutic
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced positive data from preclinical studies evaluating MM-310, an antibody-directed nanotherapeutic (ADN) that encapsulates a newly engineered form of the highly potent chemotherapy docetaxel as a prodrug in an ephrin receptor A2 (EphA2)-targeted liposome. Preclinical data on MM-310 were presented in an oral presentation and three poster sessions at the 2016 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting.
“We designed MM-310 to deliver a large and sustained chemotherapy payload of Merrimack’s newly engineered docetaxel prodrug within a protective nanoliposome to the tumor site while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues, with a goal of overcoming one of the greatest challenges in cancer treatment,” said Walid Kamoun, PhD, Research Team Lead at Merrimack. “We also used our systems approach to choose the EphA2 target as a means of enhancing MM-310’s ability to be taken in by tumor cells and to penetrate deep into the tumor core. We are excited by MM-310’s preclinical data set and look forward to future clinical evaluation of this latest therapeutic candidate from our ADN platform.”
Key findings show that MM-310 demonstrated superior antitumor activity in multiple models compared to free docetaxel and also showed that EphA2 targeted liposomes entered and delivered the cytotoxic to the tumor cell while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues, significantly decreasing traditional docetaxel drug-related side effects, such as neutropenia, in preclinical models. EphA2 receptors are associated with poor prognosis and are shown to be overexpressed in several solid tumors, including prostate, ovarian, bladder, gastric, and lung cancers.
“In an analysis of the docetaxel dose-response relationship, the data strongly suggest that the ability to deliver a higher dose of the traditional chemotherapy may lead to higher therapeutic response but also to higher toxicity. In our preclinical models, MM-310 was associated with fewer hematologic toxicities than free docetaxel and was shown to induce tumor regression or controlled tumor growth,” said Daryl Drummond, PhD, Vice President of Discovery at Merrimack. “We believe these data support clinical evaluation of MM-310 across multiple tumor types.”
Merrimack is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company that views cancer as a complex engineering challenge. Through systems biology, which brings together the fields of biology, computing and engineering, Merrimack aims to decrease uncertainty in drug development and clinical validation, and move discovery efforts beyond trial and error. Such an approach has the potential to make individualized treatment of patients a reality. Merrimack’s first commercial product, ONIVYDE (irinotecan liposome injection), was approved by the US FDA on October 22, 2015. With four additional candidates in clinical studies, several in preclinical development and multiple biomarkers designed to support patient selection, Merrimack is building one of the most robust oncology pipelines in the industry. For more information, visit www.merrimack.com.
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