On October 20, 2014, New Link Genetics Corporation (Ames, IA) announced that it had entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Genentech/Roche for the development of NLG919, an IDO (indoleamine-pyrrole 2,3-dioxygenase) inhibitor under development by NewLink. The two companies also initiated a research collaboration for the discovery of next generation IDO/TDO (tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase) inhibitors.

Under the terms of the agreement, NewLink will receive an upfront payment of $150 million, and may receive up to over $1 billion in milestone payments, as well as royalties on any sales of drugs developed under the agreement. Genentech will also provide research funding to NewLink in support of the collaboration. Other details of the agreement are outlined in NewLink’s October 20, 2014 press release.

The target of NewLink’s iDO/TDO program, and of its collaboration with Genentech, is cancer immunotherapy. As we discussed in our September 2014 report, Cancer Immunotherapy: Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Cancer Vaccines, and Adoptive T-cell Therapies (published by Cambridge Healthtech Institute), Genentech is developing the PD-L1 inhibitor MPDL3280A, which is in Phase 2 trials in renal cell carcinoma and urothelial bladder cancer, and in Phase 1 trials in several other types of cancer. PD-L1 inhibitors such as MPDL3280A constitute an alternative means to PD-1 inhibitors of blocking The PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathway.

Two PD-1 inhibitors, pembrolizumab (Merck’s Keytruda) and nivolumab (Medarex/Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo) are in a more advanced stage of development than MPDL3280A and other PD-L1 inhibitors. The FDA approved pembrolizumab for treatment of advanced melanoma in September 2014, and nivolumab was approved in Japan in July 2014, also for treatment of advanced melanoma.

MPDL3280A, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab are monoclonal antibody (MAb) drugs. Another MAb immune checkpoint inhibitor, ipilimumab (Medarex/BMS’s Yervoy) was approved for treatment of advanced melanoma in 2011. Ipilimumab, which was the first checkpoint inhibitor to gain regulatory approval, targets CTLA-4.

As summarized in the October 20, 2014 New Link press release, IDO pathway inhibitors constitute another class of immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, they are small-molecule drugs. The IDO pathway is active in many types of cancer both within tumor cells and within antigen presenting cells (APCs) in tumor draining lymph nodes. This pathway can suppress T-cell activation within tumors, and also promote peripheral tolerance to tumor associated antigens. Via both of these mechanisms, the IDO pathway may enable the survival, growth, invasion and metastasis of malignant cells by preventing their recognition and destruction by the immune system.

As also summarized in this press release, NewLink has several active IDO inhibitor discovery and development programs, and has also discovered novel tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) inhibitors. As with IDO, TDO is expressed in a significant proportion of human tumors, and also functions in immunosuppression. TDO inhibitors are thus potential anti-cancer compounds that might be used alone or in combination with IDO inhibitors.

The kynurenine pathway and its role in tumor immunity and in neurodegenerative diseases

IDO and TDO are enzymes that catalyze the first and rate-limiting step of tryptophan catabolism through the kynurenine pathway (KP). The resulting depletion of tryptophan, an essential amino acid, inhibits T-cell proliferation. Moreover, the tryptophan metabolite kynurenine can induce development of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs), as well as causing apoptosis of effector T cells, especially Th1 cells.

A 2014 review by Joanne Lysaght Ph.D. and her colleagues on the role of metabolic pathways in tumor immunity, and the potential to target these pathways in cancer immunotherapy also highlights the role of IDO and kynurenine in upregulation of Tregs and in the phenomenon of T-cell exhaustion, in which T cells chronically exposed to antigen become inactivated or anergic.

In our cancer immunotherapy report, we discuss the role of Tregs and T-cell exhaustion in immune suppression in tumors, and the role of anti-PD-1 agents in overcoming these immune blockades. Targeting the IDO and TDO-mediated tryptophan degradation pathway may thus complement the use of anti-PD-1 (and/or anti-PD-L1) MAb drugs, and potentially lead to the development of combination therapies.

We have discussed the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan catabolism in another context in our July 11, 2011 article on this blog. This article discusses the potential role of kynurenine pathway metabolites in such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Huntington’s disease (HD).

As discussed in that article, HD and AD patients have elevated levels of two metabolites in the KP–quinolinic acid (QUIN) and 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK)–in their blood and brains. Both of these metabolites have been implicated in pathophysiological processes in the brain. In contrast, kynurenic acid (KYNA), which is formed in a side arm of the KP by conversion of kynurenine by the enzyme kynurenine aminotransferase, appears to be neuroprotective.

Researchers have been targeting kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) in order to induce a more favorable ratio of KYNA to QUIN. As a result, they have discovered a drug candidate, JM6. They proposed to first conduct clinical trials in HD, since the cause of HD is much better understood than for AD, and disease progression in placebo controls is better characterized than for AD. Moreover, clinical trials in AD are notoriously long and expensive.

A 2014 review of targets for future clinical trials in HD lists JM6 as a “current priority preclinical therapeutic targets in Huntington’s disease”. It also contains an updated discussion of the mechanism of action of JM6.

NewLink’s IDO inhibitor development program

NewLink presented progress posters on its IDO inhibitor development program at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2014 annual meeting. These described trials in progress, which did not yet have any results. As described in these presentations, NewLink’s most advanced IDO inhibitor, indoximod is in:

• a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in combination with ipilimumab in advanced melanoma
• a Phase 1/2 study in combination with the alkylating agent temozolomide (Merck’s Temodar) in primary malignant brain tumors
• a Phase 2 study in combination with the antimitotic agent docetaxel (Sanofi’s Taxotere) in metastatic breast cancer
• a Phase 2 study in which indoximod is given subsequent to the anticancer vaccine sipuleucel-T (Dendreon’s Provenge) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

The company also presented a progress poster on a first-in-humans Phase 1 study of NLG919, in solid tumors. NLG919, the focus of NewLink’s alliance with Genentech, is the second product candidate from NewLink’s IDO pathway inhibitor technology platform.

The major theme of NewLink’s ASCO meeting presentations is thus the development of the company’s IDO inhibitors as elements of combination immuno-oncology therapies with MAb immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, and cytotoxic chemotherapies.

In this connection, NewLink also hosted a panel discussion on combination therapies entitled “Points to Consider in Future Cancer Treatment: Chemotherapy, Checkpoint Inhibitors and Novel Synergistic Combinations” at the ASCO meeting. The collaboration of NewLink with Genentech will provide the opportunity for the two companies to test combinations of IDO inhibitors with Genentech’s PD-L1 inhibitor MPDL3280A.

Might targeting T-cell metabolism be used to enhance cancer immunotherapy?

In their 2014 review, Dr. Lysaght and her colleagues outline changes in metabolism as T-cells become activated, and differences in metabolism between various T-cell subsets (e.g., effector T cells, Tregs, exhausted or anergic T cells, and memory T cells). These researchers propose devising means to modulate T-cell metabolism in order to enhance anti-tumor immunity. However more research needs to be done in order to make such approaches a reality. In the meantime, development of IDO and TDO inhibitors is already in the clinic, providing the possibility of a metabolic approach to cancer immunotherapy.

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As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or an initial one-to-one consultation on an issue that is key to your company’s success, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.

The Biopharmconsortium Blog has over the years included numerous articles about obesity, and the attempts of researchers and companies to develop treatments for this disease.

Obesity, which has historically been considered the result of “lack of willpower” or other behavioral issues, was recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association in June 2013. This followed many years of genetic, molecular biology, and physiological studies that revealed the pathobiological basis of obesity. Nevertheless, many people—including many doctors, patients, and nutritionists—persist in the believing the older view of obesity. This continues to fuel an extremely lucrative diet industry, even thought most—if not all—attempts at dieting eventually fail.

However, researchers and companies have continued in their efforts to develop approved therapies for obesity. We have followed the results of companies that had come close to obtaining FDA approval for three central nervous system (CNS)-acting antiobesity agents in 2010—only to encounter opposition due to safety concerns. However, two of their agents were approved in 2012. Now the third one was approved in September 2014.

Orexigen/Takeda’s Contrave approved by the FDA

On September 11, 2014, Orexigen Therapeutics (La Jolla, CA) and its partner, Takeda, announced that the FDA had approved their antiobesity agent, Contrave (naltrexone HCI and bupropion HCI) extended-release tablets as an adjunct to diet and exercise for chronic weight management in obese adults [body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or greater], and in overweight adults (BMI of 27 kg/m2 or greater) who have at least one weight-related comorbid condition (e.g, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, or hypertension).

However, the FDA requires Contrave’s label to carry a boxed warning of increased risk of suicidal thoughts and other psychiatric issues. The label also warns that “The effect of Contrave on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has not been established.” Orexigen is also required to conduct several post-marketing studies, including studies in pediatric patients, and assessment of the effects of long-term treatment with Contrave on the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular (CV) events in overweight and obese subjects with CV disease or multiple CV risk factors.

The September 2014 approval of Contrave followed the February 2011 issuance by the FDA of a Complete Response Letter requiring extensive clinical studies before Contrave could be approved. In 2010 the FDA had also rejected the applications of two other preregistration antiobesity drugs—Vivus’ Qnexa and Arena Therapeutics’ lorcaserin (Lorqess). Also in 2010, the then-marketed antiobesity drug sibutramine (Abbott’s Meridia) was withdrawn from the market at the FDA’s request.

Concern about long-term safety was the major consideration in all of these cases.

Nevertheless, lorcaserin (rebranded as Belviq) was approved in June 2012, and Qsymia (formerly known as Qnexa) was approved in July 2012.

Thus there are now three CNS-targeting weight-loss drugs on the U.S. market—all of which are “adjuncts to diet and exercise”, all of which work by suppressing appetite, and all of which have safety concerns that require post-marketing studies. Moreover, at least two of these drugs have levels of efficacy less than might be desired. For example, in one trial of Contrave, significant weight loss — defined as the loss of at least 5% of body weight — was achieved by 42% of Contrave-treated subjects, and 17% of subjects in the placebo group. The FDA says that patients taking Contrave should be evaluated after 12 weeks of treatment. Those who have failed to lose at least 5% of their body weight should discontinue Contrave.

Lorcaserin is the least efficacious of these drugs. Qsymia is the most efficacious, with 66.7% of patients on high-dose Qsymia losing at least 5% of body weight, as compared to 17.3% for placebo. The average weight loss in that trial was 10.9% of body weight with high-dose Qsymia and 1.2% with placebo.

A drop in weight of as little as 5% can have positive effects on risk of obesity’s comorbidities (e.g., insulin resistance, diabetes, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease). Nevertheless, all three of these drugs are aids in management of obesity, rather than effective treatments. Moreover, their potential adverse effects are significant. It must be remembered that it was adverse effects that resulted in the withdrawal from the market of several antiobesity drugs (including sibutramine), and prevented the approval of any obesity drugs at all in 2010.

The FDA’s approval of these three drugs indicates that the agency is more willing to make antiobesity drugs available to patients than it has been previously, even in the face of continuing concerns about long-term safety. Rather than rejecting these drugs, the FDA is handling its concerns about safety via post-marketing studies, and restricted distribution of the drugs.

Liraglutide for treatment of obesity?

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk is awaiting the FDA’s decision on the approval of its high-dose formulation of liraglutide (Saxenda) for treatment of obesity. An FDA advisory board recommended approval of the agent on September 11, 2014. The drug has an October 20 PDUFA date. The advisory board vote was based on Phase 3 results, which indicated that liraglutide produced an average 8% weight loss in obese subjects, when combined with diet and exercise. 69% of prediabetic obese individuals who were treated with liraglutide also showed no signs of prediabetes after 56 weeks, as compared to 33% for the placebo group.

We have discussed the potential use of liraglutide in treatment of obesity on this blog. A lower-dose formulation of this agent, under the trade name of Victoza, is already approved for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Liraglutide is a recombinant protein drug. It is a member of a class of drugs called incretin mimetics. An incretin is a gastrointestinal hormone that triggers an increase in insulin secretion by the pancreas, and also reduces gastric emptying. The latter effect slows nutrient release into the bloodstream and appears to increase satiety and thus reduce food intake. The major physiological incretin is glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), and incretin-mimetic drugs are peptides with homology to GLP-1 that have a longer half-life in the bloodstream than does GLP-1.

Although liraglutide does not act in the CNS, its major mechanisms of action in treatment of obesity appears to be—like CNS drugs—appetite control. Moreover, clinical trial results indicate that liraglutide is more of an aid in management of obesity than an effective treatment. Nevertheless, liraglutide’s antidiabetic effects and lack of CNS adverse effects constitute potential advantages over CNS-acting antiobesity drugs.

Sales of approved antiobesity drugs have been struggling

Despite the excitement over the approval of antiobesity drugs after so many roadblocks, sales of these drugs have fallen short of estimates. Estimates for Qsymia sales have fallen to $141 million in 2016 from the $1.2 billion projection for 2016 when the drug was approved in 2012. Eisai estimates that Belviq will generate $118 million in sales. Producers and marketers of these two drugs hope that the approval of Contrave will drive patient acceptance of all three CNS-targeting antiobesity drugs. At least one analyst projects that Contrave may achieve $740 million in sales in 2018.

If it is approved, Saxenda may have a sales advantage over the CNS-targeting drugs, since the low-dose formulation, Victoza for type 2 diabetes, is an established drug, with relationships with doctors and insurers already in place. Analysts project that liraglutide (branded as Saxenda) will generate $556 million in weight-loss sales in 2018, in addition to $3.2 billion for the antidiabetic low-dose formulation, Victoza.

A big factor in the level of sales of antiobesity drugs has been insurance reimbursement. It is estimated that some 50 percent of people with private insurance receive at least some coverage for diet drugs. However, insurers tend to classify Qsymia and Belviq as third-tier medications, requiring large patient co-payments. Moreover, Medicare and Medicaid do not pay for the drugs. Analysts hope that the approval of Contrave will result in expanded insurer coverage.

Obesity specialist company Zafgen continues to make progress

The vast majority of efforts to develop antiobesity drugs—over several decades—have been aimed at targeting the CNS. However, obesity is a complex metabolic disease that involves communication between numerous organs and tissues, notably adipose tissue (white, brown, and beige fat), skeletal muscle, the liver, the pancreas, the brain (especially the hypothalamus), the digestive system, and the endocrine system. The pathophysiology of obesity is also related to that of other major metabolic diseases, especially type 2 diabetes.

The mechanistic basis of obesity is not well understood, even though breakthroughs in understanding aspects of this disease have occurred in recent years. Thus there is great need for continuing basic research, and for novel programs aimed at development of breakthrough treatments for obesity based on non-CNS pathways.

One company that has been active in this area is Zafgen (Cambridge, MA), which we have been following on this blog. On June 24, 2014, Zafgen announced the closing of its Initial Public Offering. Zafgen is thus a young company pursuing an alternative approach to antiobesity drug discovery and development that has been able to go public.

In our May 23, 2012 article on this blog, we discussed Zafgen’s lead drug candidate, beloranib (ZGN-433). Beloranib is a methionine aminopeptidase 2 (MetAP2) inhibitor, which exerts an antiobesity effect by downregulating signal transduction pathways in the liver that are involved in the biosynthesis of fat. Animals or humans treated with beloranib oxidize fat to form ketone bodies, which can be used as energy or are excreted from the body. The result is breakdown of fat cells and weight loss. Obese individuals do not usually have the ability to form ketone bodies.

On June 22, 2013, Zafgen announced the interim results of an ongoing double blind placebo-controlled Phase 2 study of beloranib in a group of obese men and women. These results were presented in a poster session at the American Diabetes Association’s 73rd Scientific Sessions in Chicago on June 23, 2013.

Subjects had a mean age of 40.3 years, a mean weight of 101.2 kg (223.1 lbs.), and a mean BMI of 37.9 kg/m2 at the beginning of the study. 38 subjects receiving 12 weeks of treatment in the full trial were randomized to one of three doses of subcutaneous beloranib vs. placebo. The subjects were counseled not to change their usual diet and exercise patterns—this protocol thus differed from trials of the agents discussed earlier in this article. The interim analysis was of results from the first 19 subjects who completed 12 weeks of treatment.

Beloranib appeared safe and showed dose responsive weight loss. After 12 weeks, subjects on 0.6 mg, 1.2 mg, or 2.4 mg of beloranib lost an average of 3.8, 6.1 and 9.9 kg, respectively (8.4, 13.4, and 21.8 lbs.), versus 1.8 kg (4.0 lbs.) for placebo; these results were statistically significant. In addition, beloranib treated subjects showed improvements versus placebo in CV risk factors including levels of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and C-reactive protein. Sensation of hunger also was reduced significantly.

Subcutaneous beloranib treatment over 12 weeks was generally well-tolerated. There were no major adverse events or deaths.

If later clinical trials confirm these interim Phase 2 clinical results, beloranib may have significant advantages over the three approved CNS-targeting drugs and over Saxenda, because of beloranib’s apparent benign adverse-effect profile, and major effects on weight and fat loss, even in the absence of diet and exercise advice. However, beloranib is years away from reaching the market for treatment of severe obesity with no known genetic causation.

Zafgen is attempting to develop beloranib not only as a superior alternative to “diet drugs”, but also as an alternative to bariatric surgery. In order to obtain approval for that indication, beloranib must (in late-stage, long-term clinical trials) demonstrate both the degree of weight loss and the positive metabolic effects seen in severely obese patients treated via bariatric surgery.

In addition to developing beloranib for severe obesity, Zafgen is developing this drug for treatment of the rare genetic disease Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Patients with PWS exhibit such symptoms as low muscle mass, short stature, incomplete sexual development, cognitive disabilities, and a chronic feeling of hunger that can result in life-threatening obesity. PWS is the most common genetic cause of life-threatening obesity. Many children with PWS become morbidly obese before age 5.

In January 2013, the FDA granted Zafgen orphan designation to treat PWS with beloranib. On July 10, 2014, the European Commission also granted orphan drug designation for beloranib for this indication. These regulatory actions were based on the initial results of Zafgen’s Phase 2a clinical trial of beloranib in PWS. This trial showed improvements in hunger-related behaviors and body composition, including reductions in body fat and preservation of lean body mass.

On October 1, 2014, Zafgen announced that it had begun a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial of beloranib in obese adolescents and adults with PWS (clinical trial number NCT02179151). The company is also testing beloranib in Phase 2 trials in obesity due to hypothalamic injury, and is in preclinical studies with a second-generation MetAP2 inhibitor for treatment of general obesity.

Energesis Pharmaceuticals

The Biopharmconsortium Blog has also been following an earlier-stage company, Energesis Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA), whose approach to developing antiobesity therapeutics is based on targeting brown fat. On June 19, 2014, FierceBiotech and Energesis announced that Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson Innovation had entered into a collaboration with Energesis, aimed at identifying agents that stimulate the formation of new brown fat in order to treat metabolic diseases.

Conclusions

The antiobesity drug field, which in 2010 was the domain of a “pall of gloom”, is now populated by three approved CNS-targeting drugs, perhaps to be soon joined by Saxenda. These drugs promise to give patients and physicians a new set of tools to aid in the management of obesity. However, the history of the CNS-targeting obesity drug field is littered with tales of the withdrawal of drug after drug due to unacceptable adverse effects. Moreover, the market—and especially payers—have not yet fully accepted the new antiobesity agents.

As readers of this blog well know, we favor approaches to treatment of obesity and its comorbidities based on targeting somatic physiological pathways that appear to be at the heart of the causation of obesity, not just the CNS. The progress of Zafgen in addressing a set of these pathways is very encouraging. However, these results must be confirmed by Phase 3 clinical trials.

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As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or of other issues that are important to your company, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.

On September 9, 2014, Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s (CHI’s) Insight Pharma Reports announced the publication of a new book-length report, Cancer Immunotherapy: Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Cancer Vaccines, and Adoptive T-cell Therapies, by Allan B. Haberman, Ph.D.

As attested by the torrent of recent news, cancer immunotherapy is a “hot”, fast-moving field. For example:

• On September 5, 2014, the FDA granted accelerated approval to the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Merck’s Keytruda, also known as MK-3475) for treatment of advanced melanoma. This approval was granted nearly two months ahead of the agency’s own deadline. Pembrolizumab is the first PD-1 inhibitor to reach the U.S. market.

• On July 4, 2014, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s rival PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab was approved for treatment of advanced melanoma in Japan, where it will be marketed as Opdivo by Ono Pharmaceuticals. Nivolumab is the first PD-1 inhibitor to reach the Asian market.

• On May 8, 2014, the New York Times published an article about a woman in her 40’s who was treated with adoptive immunotherapy with autologous T cells to treat her cancer, metastatic cholangiocarcinoma (bile-duct cancer). This deadly cancer typically kills the patient in a matter of months. However, as a result of this treatment, the patient lived for over 2 years, with good quality of life, and is still alive today.

These and other recent news articles and scientific publications attest to the rapid progress of cancer immunotherapy, a field that only a few years ago was considered to be impracticable.

Our report focuses on the three principal types of therapeutics that have become the major focuses of research and development in immuno-oncology in recent years:

• Checkpoint inhibitors
• Therapeutic anticancer vaccines
• Adoptive cellular immunotherapy

The discussions of these three types of therapeutics are coupled with an in-depth introduction and history as well as data for market outlook.

Also featured in this report are exclusive interviews with the following leaders in cancer immunotherapy:

• Adil Daud, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), University of California at San Francisco (UCSF); Director, Melanoma Clinical Research, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

• Matthew Lehman, Chief Executive Officer, Prima BioMed (a therapeutic cancer vaccine company with headquarters in Sydney, Australia).

• Marcela Maus, MD, PhD, Director of Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development, Translational Research Program, Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The report also includes the results and an analysis of a survey of individuals working in immuno-oncology R&D, conducted by Insight Pharma Reports in conjunction with this report. The survey focuses on market outlook, and portrays industry opinions and perspectives.

Our report is an in-depth discussion of cancer immunotherapy, an important new modality of cancer treatment that may be used to treat as many as 60% of cases of advanced cancer by the late 2010s/early 2020s. It includes updated information from the 2014 ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) and AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) meetings. The report is designed to enable you to understand current and future developments in immuno-oncology. It is also designed to inform the decisions of leaders in companies and in academic groups that are working in areas that relate to cancer R&D and treatment.

For more information on Cancer Immunotherapy: Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Cancer Vaccines, and Adoptive T-cell Therapies, or to order it, see the Insight Pharma Reports website.

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As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or of other issues that are important to your company, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.

On April 1, 2014, Forma Therapeutics (Watertown MA) announced that it had entered into an expanded strategic collaboration with Celgene (Summit, NJ).

Under the new agreement, Forma has received an upfront cash payment of $225 million. The initial collaboration between the two companies under the new agreement will be for 3 1⁄2 years. Celgene will also have the option to enter into up to two additional collaborations with terms of two years each for additional payments totaling approximately $375 million. Depending on the success of the collaborations and if Celgene elects to enter all three collaborations, the combined duration of the three collaborations may be at least 7 1⁄2 years.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Forma will control projects from the research stage through Phase 1 clinical trials. For programs selected for licensing, Celgene will take over clinical development from Phase 2 to commercialization. Forma will retain U.S. rights to these products, and Celgene will have the rights to the products outside of the U.S. For products not licensed to Celgene, FORMA will maintain worldwide rights.

During the term of the third collaboration, Celgene will have the exclusive option to acquire Forma, including the U.S. rights to all licensed programs, and worldwide rights to other wholly owned programs within Forma at that time.

The April 2013 agreement between Forma and Celgene

The new collaboration between Forma and Celgene builds on an earlier agreement between the two companies. On April 29, 2013, the two companies entered into a collaboration aimed at discovery, development, and commercialization of drug candidates to modulate targets involved in protein homeostasis.

Protein homeostasis, also known as proteostasis, involves a tightly regulated network of pathways controlling the biogenesis, folding, transport and degradation of proteins. The ubiquitin pathway (illustrated in the figure above) is one of these pathways. We recently discussed how the ubiquitin pathway is involved in the mechanism of action of thalidomide and lenalidomide (Celgene’s Thalomid and Revlimid).

Targeting protein homeostasis has application to discovery and development of drugs for oncology, neurodegenerative disease, and other disorders. However, the April 2013 Forma/Celgene agreement focused on cancer. Under that agreement, Forma received an undisclosed upfront payment. Upon licensing of preclinical drug candidates by Celgene, Forma was to be eligible to receive up to $200 million in research and early development payments. FORMA was also to be eligible to receive $315 million in potential payments based upon development, regulatory and sales objectives for the first ex-U.S. license, as well as  up to a maximum of $430 million per program for further licensed products, in addition to post-sales royalties.

On October 8, 2013, Forma announced that it had successfully met the undisclosed first objective under its April 2013 strategic collaboration agreement with Celgene. This triggered an undisclosed payment to Forma. Progress in the April 2013 collaboration was an important basis for Celgene’s decision to enter into a new, broader collaboration with Forma a year later.

The scope of the new April 2014 Forma/Celgene collaboration

Unlike the April 2013 agreement, the April 2014 agreement between Forma and Celgene is not limited to protein homeostasis, or to oncology. The goal of the new collaboration is to “comprehensively evaluate emerging target families for which Forma’s platform has exceptional strength” over “broad areas of chemistry and biology”.  The expanded collaboration will thus involve discovery and development of compounds to address a broad range of target families and of therapeutic areas.

According to Celgene’s Thomas Daniel, M.D. (President, Global Research and Early Development), Celgene’s motivation for signing the new agreement is based not only on the early success of the existing Forma/Celgene collaboration, but also on “emerging evidence of the power of Forma’s platform to generate unique chemical matter across important emerging target families”.

According to Forma’s President and CEO, Steven Tregay, Ph.D., the new collaboration with Cegene enables Forma to maintain its autonomy in defining its research strategy and conducting discovery through early clinical development. It also aligns Forma with Celgene’s key strengths in hematology and in inflammatory diseases.

Forma Therapeutics in Haberman Associates publications

We have been following Forma on the the Biopharmconsortium Blog since July 2011. At that time, I was a speaker at Hanson Wade’s World Drug Targets Summit (Cambridge, MA). At that meeting, Mark Tebbe, Ph.D. (then Vice President, Medicinal and Computational Chemistry at Forma) was also a speaker. At the conference, Dr. Tebbe discussed FORMA’s technology platforms, which are designed to be enabling technologies for discovery of small-molecule drugs to address challenging targets such as protein-protein interactions (PPIs).

In particular, Dr. Tebbe discussed Forma’s Computational Solvent Mapping (CS-Mapping) platform, which enables company researchers to interrogate PPIs in intracellular environments, to define hot spots on the protein surfaces that might constitute targets for small-molecule drugs. FORMA has been combining CS-Mapping technology with its chemistry technologies (e.g., structure guided drug discovery, diversity orientated synthesis) for use in drug discovery.

We also discussed Forma’s earlier fundraising successes as of January 2012, and cited Forma as a “built to last” research-stage platform company in an interview for Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).

Finally, we discussed Forma and its technology platform in our book-length report, Advances in the Discovery of Protein-Protein Interaction Modulators, published by Informa’s Scrip Insights in 2012. (See also our April 25, 2012 blog article.)

In our report, we discussed Forma as a company that employs “second-generation technologies” for the discovery of small-molecule PPI modulators. This refers to a suite of technologies designed to overcome the hurdles that stand in the way of the accelerated and systematic discovery and development of PPI modulators. Such technologies are necessary to make targeting of PPIs a viable field.

Forma’s website now has a brief explanation of its drug discovery engine, as it is applied to targeting PPIs. This includes links to web pages describing:

• CS-Map technology
• Forma’s compound libraries, based in part on diversity-oriented synthesis
• Cell-based high-throughput screening (HTS) technologies
• Forma’s high speed solution phase parallel synthesis and purification platform. This platform provides Forma with the potential to perform medicinal chemistry at an extremely accelerated pace.

Our 2012 book-length report discusses technologies of these types, as applied to discovery of PPI modulators, in greater detail than the Forma website.

According to Dr. Daniel: “Progress in our existing [protein homeostasis] collaboration, coupled with emerging evidence of the power of FORMA’s platform to generate unique chemical matter across important emerging target families” led Celgene to enter into its new, expanded collaboration with Forma in April 2014. This suggests that Celgene is especially impressed by Forma’s chemistry and chemical biology platforms. it also suggests that chemistry technology platforms developed to address PPIs may be applicable to areas of drug discovery beyond PPIs as well.

Concluding remarks

Despite the enthusiasm for Forma and its drug discovery engine shown by Celgene, Forma’s other partners, and various industry experts, it must be remembered that Forma is still a research-stage company. The company has not one lone drug candidate in the clinic, let alone achieving proof-of-concept in humans. It is clinical proof-of-concept, followed by Phase 3 success and approval and marketing of the resulting drugs, that is the “proof of the pudding” of a company’s drug discovery and development efforts.

We await the achievement of such clinical milestones by Forma Therapeutics.

From a business strategy point of view, we have discussed Forma’s efforts to build a stand-alone, independent company for the long term in this blog and elsewhere. Now Forma has entered into an agreement with Celgene that might—in around 7-10 years—result in Forma’s acquisition. This would seem to contradict Forma’s “built to last” strategy.

However, in the business environment that has prevailed over the past several years, several established independent biotech companies, notably Genentech and Genzyme, have been acquired by larger companies. Even several Big Pharmas (e.g., Schering-Plough and Wyeth) have been acquired.

Nevertheless, we do not know what the business environment in the biotech/pharma industry will be like in 7-10 years, despite the efforts of strategists to predict it. And Celgene might forgo its option to acquire Forma, for any number of reasons. So the outlook for Forma’s status as an independent or an acquired company (which also depends on its success in developing drugs) is uncertain.

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As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or of other issues that are important to  your company, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.

Thalidomide is a notorious drug that was approved in Europe in the late 1950s for use as a sedative, but was withdrawn in the early 1960s after the drug caused thousands of devastating birth defects. The FDA did not approve thalidomide at that time. However, beginning in the late 1990s, thalidomide has been repurposed and rehabilitated, provided that proper precautions are maintained to prevent its use in pregnant women and women who may become pregnant.

Currently, thalidomide (under the brand name Thalomide) is marketed by Celgene (Summit, NJ) mainly as a treatment for multiple myeloma (MM) and of a certain form of leprosy. Celgene has also been developing derivatives of thalidomide, the most important of which are lenalidomide (Celgene’s Revlimid) and pomalidomide (Celgene’s Pomalyst). All three agents are now approved in the U.S. and in Europe. Although lenalidomide and pomalidomide are more potent in treating MM and have fewer adverse effects than thalidomide, they are still teratogenic (as determined by animal studies), and are available only in a restricted distribution setting to avoid their use during pregnancy.

Celgene calls thalidomide and its derivatives “immunomodulatory drugs” (IMiDs). Until recently, their mechanism of action was poorly understood. IMiDs were found to have a wide range of activities, including antiangiogenic activity, induction of oxidative stress, upregulation of interleukin-2 (IL-2) production by activated T cells, inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and stimulation of natural killer (NK) cells. It is thalidomide’s antiangiogenic activity that appears to be responsible for its teratogenic effects.

However, it was the antiangiogenic activity of thalidomide that gave rise to the hypothesis that this agent might be used to treat MM. MM is a B-cell malignancy that involves the proliferation of abnormal plasma cells, which accumulate in the bone marrow.  In MM, the intimate interaction between the plasma cells and bone marrow stromal cells results in induction of the angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as well as the MM survival factor IL-6. Disruption of this interaction would reduce the induction of new blood vessels and of IL-6, thus decreasing tumor growth and survival. When tested against MM, thalidomide—and later lenalidomide and other IMiDs—were found to be effective in controlling MM, as predicted by the hypothesis.

However, as of 2010, researchers found that although IMiDs are indeed antiangiogenic, that is not the mechanism that explains their therapeutic effect. Now—in 2014—two papers were published in Science that expand upon that earlier effort and identify that pathway by which IMiDs work against MM. These studies were by Krönke et al. and Lu et al. The studies were led, respectively, by Benjamin L. Ebert, M.D., Ph.D. and William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D., both at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA). These two papers were accompanied by a brief Perspective by A. Keith Stewart, M.B., CH.B., of the Mayo Clinic (Scottsdale, AZ), in the same issue of Science (17 January, 2014).

The key to understanding the pathway by which lenalidomide (the drug that was used in both of the 2014 research studies) and other IMiDs work against MM is the finding that that they bind to an intracellular protein known as cereblon (CRBN). In a 2010 study, Astellas researchers and their academic collaborators demonstrated that thalidomide binds to zebrafish CRBN. Treatment of zebrafish with CRBN morpholinos or thalidomide caused fin defects, reminiscent of the limb defects seen with thalidomide in the 1960s.

As also demonstrated in the 2010 study, CRBN forms an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex with three other proteins—damaged DNA binding protein 1 (DDB1), Cullin-4A (CUL4A), and regulator of cullins 1 (Roc1). The complex is known as the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase.

E3 ubiquitin ligases carry out the terminal step of the ubiquitin pathway—specific attachment of ubiquitin (and via repeated steps, ubiquitin chains) to substrate proteins. Attachment of ubiquitin (and especially of ubiquitin chains) to substrate proteins can tag them for destruction  by the proteasome.

Lu et al. and Krönke et al. showed that lenalidomide binding to CRBN results in the selective ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of two lymphoid transcription factors, IKZF1 and IKZF3, by the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase.  IKZF1 and IKZF3 are Ikaros family zinc finger proteins 1 and 3 (IKZF1 and IKZF3); they are also known, respectively as Ikaros and Aiolos.

Although IKZF1 is highly expressed in early lymphoid progenitors, studies in mice have shown that IKZF3 is required for the generation of plasma cells, which are the physiologic counterparts of MM cells. Both Krönke et al. and Lu et al. studied the roles of IKZF1 and IKZF3 via RNAi knockdown and other methods. Inhibition of IKZF1 or IKZF3 expression inhibited growth of lenalidomide-sensitive MM cell lines, but lenalidomide-insensitive cell lines were not affected. Downregulation of either IKZF protein in these cell lines led to loss of the other. Downregulation of IKZF1 and IKZF3 resulted in a decrease in interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) and IRF4 mRNA, consistent with IRF4 acting downstream of IKZF1 and/or IKZF3 in lenalidomide-sepsitive MM cells. Previous studies have shown that IRF4 inhibition is toxic for MM cells.

In addition to its effects on MM cells, lenalidomide treatment also upregulates IL-2 expression in T cells. Since IKZF3 binds the IL-2 gene promoter and represses IL-2 transcription in T cells, Lu et al. and Krönke et al. investigated whether lenalidomide’s effects on IL-2 expression in T cells might work via the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway. They found that RNAi knockdown of CRBN abrogated the effect of lenalidomide on IL-2 expression. They further found that lenalidomide treatment caused marked decreases in IKZF1 and IKZF3 protein levels In primary human T cells. Finally, they showed that RNAi knockdown of IKZF3 or IKZF1 induced IL-2 expression and repressed further response to lenalidomide. These studies thus show that lenalidomide indeed works via the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway to upregulate IL-2 in T cells.

Thus IMiDs, working via the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway, downregulate IRF4 in MM cells, resulting in cell death. They also upregulate IL-2 in T cells. A diagram of the pathway is given in Dr. Stewart’s Perspective.

The studies of Krönke et al. and Lu et al. have greatly advanced our understanding of the mechanism of action of IMiDs in MM. As pointed out by Krönke et al., other B cell malignancies against which lenalidomide has activity, such as mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, also exhibit high IKZF3 expression. Celgene is testing lenalidomide against chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other cancers in the clinic, and the drug is approved for treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes in Europe, in addition to MM. So the recent studies of the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway may also apply to other cancers for which lenalidomide is being developed.

Nevertheless, there are still gaps in our understanding of the mechanism of action of IMiDs. For example, the proteasomal inhibitor bortezomib (Millennium’s Velcade) is used to treat MM. Combination therapies of bortezomib and lenalidomide have shown efficacy in early clinical trials, and further trials are continuing. This creates an apparent paradox, because proteasomal blockade prevents the destruction of IKZF1 and IKZF3 by lenalidomide via the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway. Lu et al. hypothesize that since proteasomal inhibition by bortezomib is incomplete with therapeutic dosing, this might allow sufficient destruction of IKZF1 and IKZF3 while retaining bortezomib’s other therapeutic effects. Alernatively, they hypothesize that IKZF1 and IKZF2, once polyubiquitylated, may be inactive or act as dominant-negatives.

Implications for drug discovery

The most immediate implications of these findings is that they might be used to discover novel, more effective and safer modulators of the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway as therapies for MM and other B cell malignancies. Such efforts might include finding a non-teratogenic modulator of this pathway, since thalidomide-CRBN-mediated teratogenicity may be mediated by substrates other than Ikaros family proteins in different cellular lineages.

Moreover, the 2010 zebrafish study suggested that thalidomide’s teratogenic effects are due to a loss of function of cereblon. In contrast, the 2014 studies in MM indicate that the therapeutic effects of the IMiDs reflect a cereblon gain of function. This supports the possibility of finding non-teratogenic modulators of the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase-IKZF1/3 pathway.

The studies of Krönke et al. and Lu et al. may have wider implications for the targeting of E3 ubiquitin ligases in drug discovery for other diseases. We have discussed the possibility of targeting E3 ubiquitin ligases in our 2012 book-length report, Advances in the Discovery of Protein-Protein Interaction Modulators, published by Informa’s Scrip Insights.

The ubiquitin system is a fundamental regulatory system in all eukaryotic cells, comparable in importance to protein phosphorylation. In recent years, researchers have discovered and developed numerous important agents that modulate protein phosphorylation pathways, namely the protein kinase inhibitors. However, there as yet are very few approved and experimental drugs that modulate the ubiquitin system. Most are proteasome inhibitors, which indirectly target this system. The approved agent, bortezomib, has achieved blockbuster status despite its nonspecificity and limited field of application.

Despite the central importance of the ubiquitin system, there are only a handful of compounds that directly target it in clinical trials.

The reason that drug discovery of ubiquitin system-targeting drugs has lagged behind, for example, the discovery and development of protein kinase inhibitors is that modulating the ubiquitin system involves targeting protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Nevertheless, our 2012 report discusses novel technologies and strategies that might be applied to the discovery of PPI modulators.

As discussed in our April 25, 2012 article on this blog, there has been new interest in the discovery of PPIs by leading biotech/pharma companies in recent years, motivated by the development of these technologies and of the increasing strategic importance of PPI modulator development.

As we discussed in our 2012 report, the greatest drug discovery opportunity in the ubiquitin cascade is in targeting E3 ubiquitin ligases. That is because as one moves down the ubiquitinylation cascade, the degree of specificity of the process increases. There are over 600 E3 ubiquitin ligases encoded in the human genome, each of which targets its own specific class of proteins. Moreover, the total number of ubiquitin cascade enzymes encoded by the human genome is greater than the number of protein kinases.

As discussed by Krönke et al., their study (and that of Lu et al.) reveals that the small-molecule drug lenalidomide modulates the activity of the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase complex to increase ubiquitination of two transcription factors, IKZF1 and IKZF3. It does so by specific binding to one component of the system, cereblon. This was found serendipitously—not by either classical or advanced technologies for discovering PPI modulators. Moreover, the targets of the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase, IKZF1 and IKZF3, are transcription factors that act by forming PPIs. They are also involved in the complex process of chromatin remodeling, and the nature of their interactions are poorly understood. They are therefore considered “undruggable.”

Nevertheless, researchers can screen for compounds that bind cereblon, and which thus modulate the CRBN-CRL4 ubiquitin ligase. Might it also be possible to screen for compounds that modulate one component of other E3 ubiquitin ligases, and thus increase the interactions between these ligases and their specific substrates? If so, this might provide a novel means to discover drugs that modulate the ubiquitin system.

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As the producers of this blog, and as consultants to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Haberman Associates would like to hear from you. If you are in a biotech or pharmaceutical company, and would like a 15-20-minute, no-obligation telephone discussion of issues raised by this or other blog articles, or of other issues that are important to  your company, please contact us by phone or e-mail. We also welcome your comments on this or any other article on this blog.