Intezyne Partners with Exosome Diagnostics on IT-139 Companion Diagnostic

Intezyne, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel anti-cancer therapies, announced that it has partnered with Exosome Diagnostics, a privately held company focused on developing and commercializing revolutionary biofluid-based diagnostics, to design and validate an assay for use in Intezyne’s upcoming Phase 1/2 clinical trials of IT-139, a novel Cancer Resistance Pathway (CRP) inhibitor for the treatment of pancreatic, gastric and other cancers in combination with existing anti-cancer therapies.

Image courtesy of National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Intezyne, Inc.)

“In order to optimize further clinical development of our novel Cancer Resistance Pathway (CRP) inhibitor, IT-139, we need a biomarker to stratify patients into potential responders and non-responders,” said E. Russell McAllister, CEO. “After evaluating a number of potential partners and technologies, we selected Exosome to design and validate a GRP78 assay using their proprietary exosomal RNA platform technology.”

“We are excited to leverage our patented ExoLution isolation kit, a cGMP-grade exosome RNA isolation platform, that provides increased sensitivity to develop a companion diagnostic for IT-139,” stated John Boyce, President and CEO for Exosome Diagnostics. “Exploiting a novel mechanism of action, Intezyne’s IT-139 has demonstrated remarkable potential to mitigate pan-cancer drug resistance. We are thrilled to utilize our leading expertise in the liquid biopsy field, potentially enabling such a promising therapeutic breakthrough.”

Intezyne’s IT-139 is a novel Cancer Resistance Pathway (CRP) inhibitor for the treatment of pancreatic, gastric and other cancers in combination with existing anti-cancer therapies. IT-139 successfully completed a Phase 1 monotherapy study and was granted an Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) in pancreatic cancer. Additional ODDs are expected in the next 18 months. Intezyne is currently manufacturing IT-139 and expects to initiate one or more combination Phase 1/2 studies by early 2019.

Comments (0)
Add Comment