SAN DIEGO, CA, USA I January 8, 2020 I Inhibrx, Inc. (Inhibrx), a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a broad pipeline of biotherapeutics in development, announced today the administration of the first dose of INBRX-106 in a Phase 1 dose-escalation clinical study. INBRX-106 is a novel, hexavalent agonist of OX40 in development for the treatment of solid tumors. The ongoing clinical study aims to determine the safety of INBRX-106 as a single agent and in combination with Keytruda, as well as the recommended therapeutic dose level for future clinical development.

INBRX-106 was engineered to bind and cluster six OX40 receptors and has been shown preclinically to significantly outperform bivalent OX40 agonist antibodies in co-stimulatory capacity and anti-tumor activity. INBRX-106 has demonstrated strong single agent activity in preclinical tumor models that do not respond to a PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor. This activity was improved in combination with a PD-1 blocking antibody.

“The preclinical activity profile of INBRX-106 suggests that it has the potential to significantly increase the response rate and patient survival over those achieved with single agent PD-1/PD-L1 blockade,” said Mark Lappe, CEO of Inhibrx. “INBRX-106 was designed to overcome the limitations of previously explored OX40 targeting approaches and we are excited to have achieved our first dose in a cancer patient.”

About INBRX-106
INBRX-106 is a hexavalent agonist of OX40. OX40 is a co-stimulatory receptor expressed on immune cells that is enriched in the tumor microenvironment. OX40 ligand is a trimeric protein that activates OX40 signaling through clustering.  INBRX-106 was engineered to bind and cluster six OX40 receptors and has been shown preclinically to significantly outperform bivalent antibodies in co-stimulatory capacity and anti-tumor activity.

About the Inhibrx sdAb Platform
Inhibrx utilizes diverse methods of protein engineering in the construction of therapeutic candidates that can address the specific requirements of complex target and disease biology. A key tool for this effort is the Inhibrx proprietary sdAb platform, which enables the development of therapeutic candidates with attributes superior to other monoclonal antibody and fusion protein approaches. This platform allows the combination of multiple binding units in a single molecule, enabling the creation of therapeutic candidates with defined valency or multiple specificities that are capable of enhanced cell signaling or conditional activation. An additional benefit of this platform is that these optimized, multi-functional entities can be manufactured using the established processes that are commonly used to produce therapeutic proteins.

About Inhibrx, Inc. 
Inhibrx is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a broad pipeline of novel biologic therapeutic candidates in oncology and orphan diseases. Inhibrx utilizes diverse methods of protein engineering to address the specific requirements of complex target and disease biology, including its proprietary sdAb platform. Inhibrx has collaborations with bluebird bio, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Chiesi. For more information, please visit www.inhibrx.com.

SOURCE: Inhibrx