Corvus Pharmaceutical Expands its Collaboration with Genentech

Corvus Pharmaceuticals has expanded its clinical collaboration with Genentech. Under the new agreement, CPI-444 administered in combination with atezolizumab (Tecentriq) will be evaluated in a Phase 1b/2 clinical study as second-line therapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are resistant/refractory to prior therapy with an anti-PD(L)-1 antibody

Corvus co-founder, president and CEO, Richard A. Miller said that NSCLC patients who are resistant or refractory to prior treatment with anti-PD L1 (programmed death ligand-1) antibodies have few treatment options and we are very pleased that Genentech will include CPI-444 in MORPHEUS for this difficult-to-treat patient population. CPI-444 has demonstrated promising clinical activity and good tolerability, both as a single agent and in combination with atezolizumab, including in patients with PD-L1 negative tumors. In addition to the inclusion of CPI-444 in MORPHEUS, these encouraging results have also allowed them to expand the size of four cohorts, including for NSCLC patients, in their ongoing Phase 1/1b trial.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Genentech will manage study operations for the Phase 1b/2 trial, which is expected to begin enrolling patients in the second half of 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed and Corvus will retain global development and commercialization rights to CPI-444. The original clinical trial collaboration agreement between Corvus and Genentech, announced in October 2015, was for the multicenter Phase 1/1b trial, which is ongoing and continuing to examine the safety and clinical activity of CPI-444 as a single agent and in combination with atezolizumab in patients with multiple types of advanced solid tumors who previously failed standard therapies, including those resistant or refractory to prior treatment with anti-PD(L)-1 antibodies.