Turning Point Kinase Inhibitors Potent v. Targeted Oncogene Drivers, Mutations

Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage precision oncology company designing and developing novel drugs to address treatment resistance, presented data from four studies at AACR 2019, highlighting potent activity of its kinase inhibitors, including repotrectinib against targeted oncogene drivers and many of their resistance mutations, and TPX-0022, a novel MET/CSF1R/SRC inhibitor.

Two studies highlighted the higher potency of repotrectinib as compared to other proxy investigational and the currently approved ROS1 and TRK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), Xalkori and Vitrakvi, against fusion ROS1s, wildtype TRK, and many resistance mutations, including solvent front, gatekeeper, and compound mutations.

Alexander Drilon, M.D., Clinical Director of the Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an investigator in the Phase 1 portion of the ongoing TRIDENT-1 study of repotrectinib, said, “As physicians adopt next-generation sequencing to identify genomic alterations in different cancers, there is an increased need for precision therapies that target specific oncogenes, such as TRK and ROS1. Repotrectinib was found to have 10-fold or higher increased potency when compared to proxy investigational and the currently approved TRK inhibitors against wildtype (WT) TRK fusions and solvent-front mutations. The findings — while early — are significant and warrant continued clinical study.”

Data for TPX-0022, a novel, internally developed MET/CSF1R/SRC inhibitor approaching IND submission in 1H 2019, were presented for the first time at the conference. TPX-0022 was designed to target MET-driven tumor cells, but also modulate the tumor microenvironment by inhibition of CSF1R. This dual modulation has demonstrated significant tumor growth inhibition in preclinical models.

The data shown in two posters highlighted the ability of TPX-0022 to potently inhibit MET-driven cancer cells and the associated signaling of known cancer pathways, inhibiting tumor growth and reducing tumor associated macrophages. This dual mechanism of action showed tumor regression and growth inhibition in multiple xenograft tumor models harboring METamplification or MET exon 14 skipping mutations.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/turning-point-therapeutics-kinase-inhibitors-show-high-potency-against-targeted-oncogene-drivers-and-their-mutations/