The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Nanobiotix today announced a large-scale, comprehensive clinical research collaboration to evaluate innovative strategies for treating patients with head and neck, pancreatic, thoracic, lung, gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers, with the first trials to be launched in 2019.
The collaboration will expand clinical development of NBTXR3, a first-in-class agent designed to physically destroy cancer cells when activated by radiotherapy and to activate the immune system for both local control and systemic disease treatment. The collaboration includes a $12 million investment to MD Anderson from Nanobiotix.
MD Anderson will initially conduct the launch of nine new phase I/II clinical trials focused on evaluating the potential clinical benefit of NBTXR3 when activated by radiotherapy, either as a monotherapy or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. The planned trials, to follow approximately 340 patients, also will look at various disease stages, including low-risk/good prognostic patients, locally advanced disease, and metastatic disease. The trials will study NBTXR3 across different radiation modalities such as radiation, re-irradiation, and compare different levels of intensity of radiation, to evaluate whether the addition of NBTXR3 to radiotherapy will improve progression-free survival, loco-regional control, quality of life and organ preservation.
"It is important for Nanobiotix to collaborate with academic institutions to develop a broad spectrum of clinical trials in an expedited fashion, said Dr. Thomas Morris, global head of development at Nanobiotix. "This is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen our scientific and clinical understanding of the potential of NBTXR3 across the wide range of cancers treated with radiotherapy, with the goal of benefitting patients by applying novel research and bringing forward an innovative therapy. The collaboration between Nanobiotix and MD Anderson expands the number of NBTXR3 clinical trials to 16, illustrating our dedication to identify more effective treatments for cancer patients."
This new collaboration between Nanobiotix and MD Anderson follows up the immunotherapeutic pre-clinical research collaboration, launched in April 2018, in lung cancer to explore NBTXR3 potential in immuno-oncology with checkpoint inhibitors, as well as its potential to control metastatic disease.
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