BERGENBIO CONFIRMS FIRST COVID-19 PATIENT ENROLLED WITH BEMCENTINIB IN ACCORD TRIAL
Bergen, Norway – 8th December 2020: BerGenBio ASA (OSE:BGBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, selective AXL kinase inhibitors for severe unmet medical need, today announces that the first patient has been enrolled with bemcentinib in the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded COVID-19 ACCORD clinical study.
The ACCORD study is a multicentre, seamless, Phase II adaptive randomisation platform trial to assess the efficacy and safety of multiple candidate agents, the first of which is bemcentinib, for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalised UK NHS patients. Funding for the study was suspended by UKRI in July due to the falling number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients across UK trial sites but reinstated in September 2020 following a rise in the number of cases across the UK.
BerGenBio will make a modest financial contribution to the cost for the study and provide bemcentinib drug material. 60 hospitalised COVID-19 patients will receive bemcentinib and 60 patients in a control group will receive standard of care treatment. The trial protocol will permit enrolled patients with COVID-19, who meet the inclusion criteria for the study, to potentially receive bemcentinib plus one or both of the two recently recommended treatments for COVID-19: dexamethasone and remdesivir.
Data will be open source and freely available to enable global knowledge sharing and collaboration. Data previously gathered before the cessation of the trial in July will be included in the analysis.
Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented: "With the incidence of COVID-19 cases in the UK and globally still high with no approved treatment, there is still an urgent need for effective treatments options for hispitalised patients. We believe bemcentinib has great promise and we are pleased to see the treatment of patients commence again in the UK trial."
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About AXL
AXL kinase is a cell membrane receptor and an essential mediator of the biological mechanisms underlying many life-threatening diseases. In cancer, AXL suppresses the body’s immune response to tumours and drives cancer treatment failure across many indications. AXL expression defines a very poor prognosis subgroup in most cancers. AXL inhibitors, therefore, have potential high value at the centre of cancer combination therapy, addressing significant unmet medical needs and multiple high-value market opportunities. Research has also shown that AXL mediates other aggressive diseases.
About Bemcentinib
Bemcentinib (formerly known as BGB324), is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II clinical development programme. Ongoing clinical trials are investigating bemcentinib in multiple solid and haematological tumours, in combination with current and emerging therapies (including immunotherapies, targeted therapies and chemotherapy), and as a single agent. Bemcentinib targets and binds to the intracellular catalytic kinase domain of AXL receptor tyrosine kinase and inhibits its activity. Increase in AXL function has been linked to key mechanisms of drug resistance and immune escape by tumour cells, leading to aggressive metastatic cancers.
About BerGenBio ASA
BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for aggressive diseases, including immune-evasive, therapy resistant cancers. The company's proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II oncology clinical development programme focused on combination and single agent therapy in lung cancer, leukaemia and COVID-19. A first-in-class functional blocking anti-AXL antibody, tilvestamab, is undergoing phase I clinical testing. In parallel, BerGenBio is developing companion diagnostic tests to identify patient populations most likely to benefit from bemcentinib: this is expected to facilitate more efficient registration trials supporting a precision medicine-based commercialisation strategy.
BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: BGBIO). For more information, visit www.bergenbio.com
Contacts
Richard Godfrey CEO, BerGenBio ASA
+47 917 86 304
Rune Skeie, CFO, BerGenBio ASA
rune.skeie@bergenbio.com
+47 917 86 513
International Media Relations
Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Welsh, Lucy Featherstone, Carina Jurs
Consilium Strategic Communications
bergenbio@consilium-comms.com
+44 20 3709 5700
Media Relations in Norway
Jan Petter Stiff, Crux Advisers
stiff@crux.no
+47 995 13 891
Forward looking statements
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.