RE:RE:TIGIT class of checkpoint inhibitors fails with Keytruda October 30, 2023 - Roche is strapped into the first car for the long haul. It’s paid off, says Charlie Fuchs, senior vice president and global head of oncology and hematology drug development at Genentech and Roche.
“I believe in TIGIT,” Fuchs told Fierce Biotech on the sidelines of the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting, held Oct. 20 to 24 in Madrid.
The Swiss pharma's devout commitment was on display this summer when an inadvertent data disclosure from the SKYSCRAPER-01 trial in patients with first-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that a combination featuring anti-TIGIT antibody tiragolumab led to median overall survival of 22.9 months, compared to 16.7 months in the Tecentriq monotherapy cohort. The hazard ratio was 0.81. Median follow-up at the time of the analysis was 15.5 months.
Fuchs acknowledges that the data are a bit immature, but he’s encouraged by the results nonetheless. He says Roche wants to see more events come in from that SKYSCRAPER-01 trial.
Last year, Roche revealed that adding tiragolumab to Tecentriq failed to improve progression-free survival (PFS) in an earlier cut of data from the phase 3 test. Fuchs isn’t sure PFS needs to be met for tiragolumab to be successful, given its other benefits.
“One thing that I think we've been upfront about is, with cancer immunotherapy, PFS is an important proxy. But there are examples in cancer immunotherapy where PFS is either modest or not really present as a benefit, but overall survival is positively influenced,” Fuchs said.
“Now, it's early data and the proof of the pudding will be in the phase 3. But I think you're seeing enough signals from randomized phase 2 efforts both within Roche and other companies to say this target is likely to have a clinical benefit,” Fuchs said.
He continued: “There may be companies that have retreated. It seems to me that since our inadvertent data disclosure, they've looked at our data and said hey, you know what, we're going to increase our investment.”
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/esmo-roche-still-hanging-tigit-rollercoaster-ride