Faron upbeat on updated data from cancer treatment study

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Faron Pharmaceuticals announced updated survival data from the phase 1 and 2 study investigating the safety and efficacy of ‘bexmarilimab’ on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the updated results included the 30 patients from part one and the 110 patients from part two of the trial.

For all of the patients, the estimated median progression free survival was 59 days, and the estimated median overall survival was 157 days.

Landmark overall survival for patients who received three courses of treatment, and had their scheduled tumour imaging at cycle four, estimated that 70% of disease control rate patients were alive at nine months after the landmark, compared to 26% of non-DCR patients.

The most significant disease control rate among part two cohorts was in cutaneous melanoma, gastric cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and breast cancer patients.

Faron said treatment with bexmarilimab was still well-tolerated, with no new safety signals reported and no treatment-related adverse events resulting in a decrease or modification of dosing.

As it previously announced, patients with low interferon gamma and tumour necrosis factor alpha levels experienced “significantly higher” clinical benefit following treatment with bexmarilimab - the opposite to what is usually seen with checkpoint inhibitors and other T cell activating agents.

Additionally, a more than 100% increase in interferon gamma levels was seen after the first cycle of bexmarilimab treatment among patients who experienced clinical benefit.

“The updated MATINS data shows even more clearly that heavily pre-treated, late-stage cancer patients who receive clinical benefit from bexmarilimab can achieve long term survival,” said the company’s chief medical officer, Marie-Louise Fjällskog.

“The ongoing biomarker analysis is also helping us better identify which patients are likely to respond and what happens in the tumour microenvironment when patients are treated with bexmarilimab.”

At 1525 GMT, shares in Faron Pharmaceuticals were up 3.92% at 265p.