LONDON – Dec. 12, 2024 – Avacta Therapeutics (AIM: AVCT), a life sciences company developing next generation peptide drug conjugates (PDC) targeting powerful anti-tumor payloads directly to the tumor, today announces the completion of the enrollment in the AVA6000 Phase 1a Dose Escalation and Recommended Dose for Expansion (RDE) cohort, and the opening of the Phase 1b disease-specific expansion cohorts in the trial. Patient screening has commenced.
The Phase 1b expansion cohorts follow the encouraging preliminary results in the trial reported earlier in 2024 demonstrating a favorable safety profile and significant antitumor activity in patients with salivary gland cancers (a subset of head and neck cancer) and high-grade soft tissue sarcoma.
The Phase 1b cohorts will enroll patients in three disease-specific cohorts including: (1) triple negative breast cancer; (2) salivary gland cancer and (3) high grade soft tissue sarcoma.
Updated data for the Phase 1 dose escalation cohorts and the recommended dose for expansion cohort will be presented in the first half of 2025.
Christina Coughlin, MD PhD, CEO of Avacta, commented: “We are encouraged by the anti-tumor activity observed in the Phase 1 dose escalation and RDE cohorts of the trial and the expansion cohorts are designed to build on that knowledge. Opening of the expansion cohorts represents a significant milestone in the development of FAP-Doxorubicin (AVA6000) in that we will now be able to assess the activity in specific indications to better plan Phase 2 development.”