SAN DIEGO, CA, USA I October 03, 2022 I Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONCT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel oncology therapies, today announced the receipt of a ‘Study May Proceed’ letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 30 days after submitting its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a Phase 1/2 dose escalation study of ONCT-808, an autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy targeting ROR1, in patients with aggressive B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (B NHL), including those who have failed previous CD19 CAR T treatment.

“We are very pleased with the clearance of our IND application for our lead autologous CAR T product candidate, ONCT-808,” said James Breitmeyer, M.D., Ph.D., Oncternal’s President and CEO. “This will be our second clinical program focusing on the important ROR1 cancer target, following the initiation of our phase 3 study for our ROR1 antibody zilovertamab, announced last week. ROR1 is an exciting and promising target that is highly expressed in a wide range of cancers and is an ideal candidate for cell therapy applications due to its highly specific tumor expression, and association with tumor survival mechanisms. Our initial dose finding study will enroll patients with aggressive B NHL, including those that have failed prior CD19 therapy, which represent a significant unmet need in the market today. We expect to initiate the study in the coming months and to present interim results at a scientific conference in 2023.”

About Oncternal Therapeutics
Oncternal Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel oncology therapies for the treatment of patients with cancers that have critical unmet medical need. Oncternal pursues drug development targeting promising, yet untapped biological pathways implicated in cancer generation or progression, focusing on hematological malignancies and prostate cancer. The lead clinical program is zilovertamab, an investigational monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit the function of Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-Like Orphan Receptor 1 (ROR1). ZILO-301, a global Phase 3 Study to evaluate zilovertamab in combination with ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has been initiated (NCT05431179). Zilovertamab continues to be evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1/2 study in combination with ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with MCL and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and this trial was recently amended to include patients with marginal zone lymphoma (MZL). Zilovertamab is also being evaluated in two investigator-initiated studies, including a Phase 2 clinical trial of zilovertamab in combination with venetoclax, a Bcl-2 inhibitor, in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL, and in a Phase 1b study of zilovertamab in combination with docetaxel in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Oncternal is also moving into the clinic with ONCT-808, an autologous chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy that targets ROR1, with an active U.S. IND as of the end of September 2022 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B cell lymphoma, including patients who have failed previous CD19 CAR T treatment. The preclinical pipeline also includes ONCT-534, a dual-action androgen receptor inhibitor (DAARI) that is undergoing final IND-enabling studies, as a potential treatment for castration resistant prostate cancer, including those with unmet medical need due to resistance to approved, standard of care androgen receptor inhibitors. More information is available at https://oncternal.com/.

SOURCE: Oncternal Therapeutics