New research supports mode of action in Faron's 'MATINS' study

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Faron Pharmaceuticals announced the publication of research supporting the immunotherapeutic blockade of ‘Clever-1’ to activate anti-tumour immune responses in advanced cancer patients on Thursday.

The AIM-traded firm said the research, published in the American Association for Cancer Research’s journal Clinical Cancer Research, analysed the mode of action of ‘bexmarilimab’, both in-vitro and in heavily pre-treated metastatic cancer patients, from the dose-finding phase of its ongoing phase 1 and 2 ‘MATINS’ study.

Bexmarilimab is Faron's wholly-owned novel precision cancer immunotherapy targeting ‘Clever-1’, or common lymphatic endothelial and vascular endothelial receptor 1, which is a receptor expressed on immunosuppressive macrophages in the tumour microenvironment.

The humanised monoclonal antibody was currently being investigated as a potential monotherapy in patients with solid tumours who had exhausted all treatment options.

Faron said the ongoing, open-label multicentre MATINS study had treated more than 140 patients to date.

A recent and previously-announced analysis of data from patients enrolled in the completed part 1 and ongoing part 2 of the study identified “promising” anti-tumour activity in multiple advanced solid tumours.

The research published in Clinical Cancer Research was conducted by Dr Maija Hollmén and colleagues at the University of Turku in Finland, part of Faron's scientific network, and was supported by the investigators in the MATINS study.

It explored the systemic immune signatures induced by bexmarilimab in advanced cancer patients with solid tumours, and provided a “mechanistic understanding” of how a macrophage-targeted approach could promote “robust” activation of T-cells.

In the cancer patients studied, it was found that administration of bexmarilimab successfully lowered the suppressive potential of macrophage precursors circulating in the blood.

Treatment led to suppression of nuclear lipid-signalling pathways and a proinflammatory phenotypic switch in blood monocytes.

Those effects were accompanied by a “significant increase and activation” of peripheral T-cells with indications of anti-tumour responses in some patients.

The company said the researchers concluded that the therapeutic blockade of Clever-1 revealed a pathway linking the “innate and adaptive” immune system, and that targeting macrophages could promote an immune switch, converting immunologically-ignorant tumours to an immune activated state, supporting further exploration of Clever-1 as an immunotherapeutic drug target.

“Macrophages have been proven to be critical in driving an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment, which ultimately counteracts the effects of current T-cell targeting therapies,” said Dr Maija Hollmén.

“Successfully overcoming this suppression is critical to developing effective new cancer therapies.

“We have demonstrated through this research that adaptive immune activation can be achieved by modulating the behaviour of macrophages.”

At 1314 BST, shares in Faron Pharmaceuticals were down 0.27% at 364p.