Genmab has shed another antibody-drug conjugate from its April 2024 acquisition of ProfoundBio. The Danish pharma has dropped development of GEN1160, a company spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech, halting a phase 1/2 trial of the asset.
“GEN1160 has been discontinued due to low enrollment in the clinical trial and in line with our portfolio prioritization strategy,” the Genmab spokesperson said. “This approach ensures we focus our resources on developing innovative antibody medicines with the greatest potential to make a meaningful impact for patients.”
The trial had been testing GEN1160 in patients with renal cell carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
GEN1160 joins another spoil from the ProfoundBio buy, GEN1107, on Genmab’s scrap heap. The drugmaker scuttled its solid tumor candidate, GEN1107, in September after a phase 1/2 trial revealed a subpar risk-benefit profile.
Genmab is still pursuing rinatabart sesutecan (Rina-S), ProfoundBio’s star asset, in ovarian and endometrial cancers, the spokesperson said, along with GEN1286 in solid tumors. The pharma is currently enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors in a phase 1/2 trial for GEN1286, formerly known as PRO1286.
Rina-S is a potential competitor to AbbVie’s Elahere, but the Chicago pharma has taken legal steps to interrupt Genmab’s ADC development. AbbVie alleged in a March lawsuit that ProfoundBio built its ADC tech on stolen trade secrets from a former AbbVie employee.
Genmab said it would “vigorously defend” itself against AbbVie’s claims, and noted that numerous other companies—such as Adcentrx, Alvotech, BeiGene and Revance—have come under fire from the American pharma in similar cases.
In May, Rina-S beat analyst expectations with a 50% unconfirmed response rate in advanced endometrial cancer, fueling a phase 3 push in the indication that is set to begin this month, according to clinicaltrials.gov. In October, Genmab released further phase 1/2 data showing Rina-S achieved a 50% objective response rate, including two patients whose cancer completely disappeared.
Though it is winnowing down its assets from ProfoundBio, Genmab is still building up its cancer pipeline overall. At the end of September, Genmab shelled out a hefty $8 billion for Netherlands-based biotech Merus and its bispecific antibody, petosemtamab.
The antibody previously notched a 79% 12-month survival rate in a phase 2 trial of patients with PD-L1–positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, with analysts hailing its “best-in-disease profile.”