Date: 2013-04-26
Type of information: Treatment of the first patient
phase: 2
Announcement: dosing of the first patient
Company: Morphosys (Germany)
Product: MOR208
Action
mechanism: MOR208 (formerly XmAb®5574) is a potent anti-CD19 antibody with a proprietary modification to the Fc portion, that is being developed to treat B-cell malignancies.The target molecule CD19 is expressed more broadly and earlier in B-cell development than CD20, the target of the marketed cancer drug Rituxan®. Therefore targeting CD19 could potentially allow for an even broader therapeutic use of MOR208 than marketed anti-CD20 antibodies.
In June 2010, MorphoSys AG and Xencor signed a worldwide exclusive license and collaboration agreement. The agreement provided MorphoSys with an exclusive worldwide license to MOR208 for the treatment of cancer and other indications. Using Xencor's XmAb Fc enhancement technology, MOR208 has been engineered to possess significantly enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), thus improving a key mechanism for tumor cell killing and offering potential for enhanced efficacy compared to traditional antibodies for the treatment of cancer.
Disease: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Country: USA
Trial
details: The US-based study is an open-label, multicenter, single-arm clinical trial designed to assess the efficacy of MOR208 in patients suffering from relapsed or refractory B-ALL. Secondary outcome measures include response duration, safety and pharmacokinetics of MOR208. In total, 30 patients are planned to be enrolled. (NCT01685021)
Latest
news: * On April 26, 2013, MorphoSys has announced that it has dosed the first patient in a Phase 2 clinical trial of MOR208 in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). MOR208 has shown in a Phase 1/2a trial encouraging signs of preliminary anti-tumor activity and an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in patients with high-risk, heavily pretreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). In addition to the Phase 2 trial in B-ALL MorphoSys is about to start a second Phase 2 trial in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL).
