Theratechnologies Inc T.TH

Car-T TCell competition - Adaptimmune ESMO

[Wino115]

The rather complex T-Cell immunology approach to solid tumors got a read today from Adapimmune. The whole CAR-T approach to dealing with tumors has been fairly hot over the last 3-4 years and is one of those competitive technologies that PKIB or someone identified as an issue to follow.

In summary, their P1 trial called SURPASS was an all-comers in solid tumors, so like THTX. They are testing on ovarian, gastro, urothelial, head/neck and synovial sarcoma.  So far it shows:

ORR of 33% (14 of 43 patients)
Durability: 3 months, with 7 patients still ongoing so trending higher.
Safety: Biggest concern with 2 related death and Grade 3+ AEs at 9%.  They had 25% with Grade 3 Cytopenia.
Ovarian Efficacy: ORR of 36% (5/14) with 1 complete response.
Head Neck: ORR 75% (3/4) 
Urothelial: ORR 57% (4/7) with 1 uncomfirmed response
Gastro: ORR 15% (2/13)

Conclusion for this competitor is while it shows clinical activity, it's fairly average and not too competitive with other therapies, but safety remains a concern.

I would think this is the kind of reporting we might see with the basket trial -- some aggregate overall numbers and then the cancer breakdown with RECIST data.  The above numbers were good enough in Ovarian that the company is saying they will do a Phase 2 in that cancer.  A year a go they had a market cap around $1bil.  Today it's around $300mil.  Been a tough go for them and these numbers don't scream "high probability successful commercialization".

[qwerty22]

One company getting a lot of attention at EMSO seems to be Relay therapeutics. Their lead drug might be heading for an early approval. It targets a very specific group of breast cancer patient with a specific mutation. The suggestion is at least 8000 patients. It seems to do it very well with an 88% ORR. It has a market cap over $3 billion and just announced it's going to try raise $300 mil