Date: 2015-02-17
Type of information: Publication of results in a medical journal
phase: preclinical
Announcement: publication of results in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
Company: Halozyme Therapeutics (USA - CA)
Product: pegylated recombinant human hyaluronidase PH20 - PEGPH20
Action
mechanism: enzyme. PEGPH20 is an investigational PEGylated form of Halozyme\'s proprietary recombinant human hyaluronidase under development for the systemic treatment of tumors that accumulate hyaluronan. FDA granted orphan drug designation to PEGPH20 for treatment of pancreatic cancer and fast track for PEGPH20 in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Additionally, the European Commission, acting on the recommendation from the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency, designated investigational drug PEGPH20 an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Disease:
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On February 17, 2015, Halozyme Therapeutics announced that the manuscript \"Tumor-Associated Hyaluronan Limits Efficacy of Monoclonal Antibody Therapy\" has been published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (February 2015 14:523-532). The paper expands on previously reported data in a poster presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, CA. The manuscript was written and funded by Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. This paper provides a comprehensive description of the preclinical characterization of how investigational PEGPH20 has the potential to enhance the anti-cancer activity of the accompanying immunotherapy (trastuzumab and immune cells) in a high hyaluronan (HA) tumor model,\" stated H. Michael Shepard, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. \"These data suggest that PEGPH20 not only has the potential to enhance the access of drug into an HA-high tumor by reducing the pressure inside of the tumor, but also breaks the physical barrier on the cancer cell surface, thus potentially exposing the cancer cells and allowing the immune system to attack the malignant cells more efficiently.\" Publication Summary:PEGPH20 enhances HA-high breast cancer cell killing by trastuzumab and natural killer (NK) cells in vitro. Upon PEGPH20 application, synapse formation between immune and cancer cells occurs and promotes the killing capacity of NK cells. PEGPH20, by removing HA from the cancer cell surface, potentially allows greater contact of NK cells to tumor cells, a key process involved in antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity of cancer cells.
