Most cancers is effectively represented within the Astellas Pharma portfolio and pipeline, however the drugmaker has made diversification a key a part of its progress technique. Newer merchandise in its drug lineup embody a vision-loss dysfunction drug and a first-in-class remedy for menopause signs.
Cell and gene therapies are additionally a key a part of Astellas’s progress technique, constructing off of its 2020 acquisition of gene remedy developer Audentes Therapeutics. Inside gene remedy, the Tokyo-based firm is concentrated neuromuscular problems, Chief Medical Officer Tadaaki Taniguci mentioned in an interview final week through the annual J.P Morgan Healthcare Convention in San Francisco.
“Our technique up to now is extra creating {our capability},” Taniguci mentioned. “We truly acquired Audentes, creating our capabilities towards gene remedy. However now we see that the extra essential factor for us is to actually usher in clinical-phase property to our pipeline.”
The Astellas pipeline is cut up almost 50/50 between internally developed drug candidates and property from acquisitions or exterior collaborations. Audentes introduced AT132, a gene remedy for the uncommon neuromuscular illness X-linked myotubular myopathy. This program has been beset by setbacks because of affected person deaths within the trial. However Audentes additionally introduced packages for 2 uncommon different uncommon problems, Pompe illness, an inherited dysfunction that results in muscle weak point, in addition to Friedreich’s ataxia, which causes cardiomyopathy. Each packages are in early medical growth.
Astellas remains to be increasing its gene remedy prospects by means of offers. Final October, the corporate paid AviadoBio $50 million for the choice to license the biotech’s lead gene remedy, which is in early medical growth for frontotemporal dementia, a neurodegenerative dysfunction with no FDA-approved remedies. The deal construction is much like a 2022 settlement that gave Astellas the choice to license a Taysha Gene Therapies program for Rett syndrome, a dysfunction that results in developmental issues. Section 1/2 security and efficacy information for this Rett remedy, TSHA-102, are anticipated within the first half of this 12 months.
Astellas stays prepared to strike offers that give it new instruments that increase its capabilities in gene remedy, Taniguci mentioned. The corporate is already creating gene therapies delivered to their bodily locations carried aboard adeno-associated viruses (AAV). These engineered viruses preferentially go to the liver. In 2021, Astellas started a analysis collaboration with Dyno Therapeutics centered on discovering novel capsids — the protein shells that envelop a genetic payload — for supply to skeletal and cardiac muscle.
Final month, Astellas started a partnership with Sangamo Therapeutics, securing the best to make use of one in every of that biotech’s proprietary capsids to penetrate the mind and attain neuronal targets, which Taniguci mentioned suits together with his firm’s neuromuscular illness technique. Penetrating the blood-brain barrier “is the one greatest problem to beat to focus on the [central nervous system],” he mentioned. “So they assist us to create a lot better entry to the goal organ. We see extra platform growth along with them to really create the following era of gene remedy.”
In oncology, the corporate’s high merchandise are Xtandi, a small molecule drug for prostate most cancers, and Padcev, an antibody drug conjugate for bladder most cancers. A Section 3 examine is evaluating Padcev together with the Merck immunotherapy Keytruda as a remedy for muscle-invasive bladder most cancers. Information are anticipated in Astellas’s subsequent fiscal 12 months, which begins on April 1. Extra medical research are testing Padcev in non-muscle-invasive bladder most cancers and different stable tumors.
Astellas is pursuing different approaches to most cancers. Its in-house R&D has yielded ASP3082, the corporate’s lead focused protein degrader drug for most cancers. This drug candidate targets the cancer-driving protein KRAS G12D. On the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) assembly final September, Astellas reported preliminary Section 1 information exhibiting anti-tumor exercise in sufferers with pancreatic, colorectal, and non-small cell lung cancers. Taniguci famous the outcomes point out a dose-dependent degradation of the goal protein. Astellas might want to present differentiation from different corporations creating KRAS G12D-targeting medication, equivalent to Revolution Medicines and Bristol Myers Squibb, by way of the pharma large’s acquisition of Mirati Therapeutics. However Astellas envisions doubtlessly bringing its focused protein degradation strategy to a number of KRAS mutations.
“It is a new know-how that we began utilizing for KRAS G12D, however we even have a pan-KRAS product coming to the clinic fairly quickly,” Taniguci mentioned. “We additionally began increasing extra to different targets. We can not disclose but, however [there’s] a number of pleasure.”
Astellas’s latest most cancers drug is Vyloy, which in October turned the primary FDA-approved drug focusing on claudin 18.2, a protein extremely expressed in gastrointestinal cancers. This internally developed drug is a monoclonal antibody. The Astellas pipeline consists of one other program focusing on claudin 18.2, however with a bispecific antibody. This program, ASP2138, is in Section 1 testing.
Girls’s well being is a more recent piece of Astellas’s portfolio coming with the 2023 FDA approval of Veozah, a non-hormonal drug for treating vasomotor signs brought on by menopause. The primary-in-class remedy is a small molecule designed to dam neurokinin 3, a receptor that performs a job in regulating physique temperature. Final month, the FDA added a black field warning on the product’s label, flagging the chance of extreme liver harm. Taniguci mentioned liver toxicity is a identified danger that was first noticed in medical trials. None of these circumstances have been extreme. Out there, the product has been utilized by about 100,000 sufferers.
“Liver tox is comparatively uncommon, however typically we see the extreme circumstances,” Taniguci mentioned. “That’s why I feel it’s essential to supply cautions for the affected person and doctor to make use of this essential medication. However after all we consider that the profit/danger steadiness is actually optimistic. In order that’s why we nonetheless hear a number of sufferers prepared to make use of Veozah in remedy of [vasomotor symptoms].”
Picture: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg, by way of Getty Pictures