Pilatus Biosciences and Roche Join Forces in Clinical Trial for Liver Cancer Therapy

Pilatus and Roche are Together in a Clinical Trial Collaboration

Announcement

Pilatus Biosciences Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company leading in metabolic checkpoint immunotherapies for gastrointestinal and liver cancers entered into a clinical trial collaborative agreement with Roche. As per the terms of the agreement, Roche will enable atezolizumab (Tecentriq), its anti-PD-L1 therapy, to contribute to the Pilatus lined in first in human phase 1 trial analyzing PLT012 in merger with atezolizumab in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. PLT012 is Pilatus’s excellent immunomodulatory candidate introduced to reprogram the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and fibrotic characteristics of HCC.

The investigational merger will be examined in pilatus-activated clinical trials to assess tolerability and safety. The atezolizumab, a standard of care treatment for first-stage HCC in merger with bevacizumab (Avastin), will be enabled by Genentech. Genentech is a member of the Roche Group, which is used in Pilatus’s clinical research. HCC is a common strain of primary liver cancer and continues to be one of the main causes of cancer-based death globally. Avastin (bevacizumab) and Tecentriq (atezolizumab) are registered trademarks of Genentech. The clinical trial’s outcome will show effective results with this collaborative team of the company leaders. The development of the drug will accelerate with the specialized expertise of both companies and their equal participation in the same.

Views and Statements from Company Leaders

PhD Chief Executive Officer of Pilatus Biosciences, Raven Lin, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Roche as we get to discover the potential synergy between PLT012 and atezolizumab in HCC patients. The current treatments consist of checkpoint inhibitors as monotherapy, which have mostly failed to create a durable indication in liver cancer. The PLT012’s capability to reframe the TME might improve immune activation and uncover deep and sustained indications on initiating it with anti-PhD-L1 therapies like atezolizumab.”

NTU Chair Professor and President Emeritus of the NTU Cancer Center of National Taiwan University and Scientific Collaborator at Pilatus Biosciences, Dr. Ann-Lii Cheng who also served as the leading principal investigator of the landmark IMbrave150 trial for atezolizumab and bevacizumab for HCC, published in NEJM 2020, said, “The partnership describes an opportunity to navigate modulation of the TME to seek enhancement in immune checkpoint blockade in liver cancer. The combination of atezolizumab and PLT012 has the potency to rise above the main mechanism of resistance in patients with HCC and help initiate more durable patient indications and successfully enhance patient outcome for this extreme disease.”