Posted: 23 February 2022
- AMP945 improves effectiveness of current standard of care in an animal model using human pancreatic cancer cells;
- Addition of AMP945 pre-treatment to gemcitabine/Abraxane® chemotherapy regimen increased survival by 33%;
- Confirmation in second animal model further validates rationale and design of Phase 2 clinical trial of AMP945 in first line pancreatic cancer patients.
Amplia Therapeutics Limited is pleased to announce that researchers at the Garvan Institute have now shown that AMP945 is able to improve the effectiveness of gemcitabine/Abraxane® in a model of human pancreatic cancer.
Previously, Amplia reported that the addition of a pre-treatment with AMP945 to a regimen of the standard chemotherapy drugs gemcitabine/Abraxane® resulted in a 27% improvement in survival in the aggressive KPC mouse model of pancreatic cancer (see announcement dated 2nd June 2021). In the study reported today, cancer cells derived from a human pancreas cancer were transplanted into the pancreas of laboratory mice (the TKCC-10-LO* orthotropic model). Once pancreatic tumours were established, mice were treated either with gemcitabine/Abraxane® or AMP945 in combination with gemcitabine/Abraxane®. When intermittent oral doses of Amplia’s AMP945 were added to gemcitabine/Abraxane®, survival increased by 33% compared to gemcitabine/Abraxane® alone.
Commenting on the result, Professor Paul Timpson of the Garvan Institute said “We have run this model on several occasions using different FAK inhibitors and now with AMP945. This result clearly shows that AMP945 increases survival in this model and is likely superior to other FAK inhibitors we have tested”.
In this experiment, the median survival time of untreated mice was 68 days, while mice treated with gemcitabine/Abraxane® alone exhibited a median survival time of 122 days. Mice treated with a combination of AMP945 and gemcitabine/Abraxane® had a median survival time of 163 days, representing a statistically significant 33% increase in median survival (P ≤ 0.05), relative to gemcitabine/Abraxane® alone.
“Working with our collaborators at the Garvan, we have shown that AMP945 can improve the current standard of care in a second model of pancreatic cancer and provide further validation of the approach we will use in our Phase 2 clinical trial that is expected to start early in the second quarter,” said John Lambert, CEO of Amplia. “These data are particularly compelling as AMP945 has been used to treat tumours that have formed from human pancreatic cancer cells. Aside from actually running the clinical trial, this is the most compelling translational evidence we could have to support the approach we are taking.”
About Amplia Therapeutics Limited
Amplia Therapeutics Limited is an Australian pharmaceutical company advancing a pipeline of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) inhibitors for cancer and fibrosis. FAK is an increasingly important target in the field of cancer immunology and Amplia has a particular development focus in pancreatic cancer. FAK also plays a significant role in a number of chronic diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
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