-Patients with liposarcoma (LPS) demonstrated prolonged median PFS (mPFS) relative to historical controls treated with standard of care of doxorubicin-

-Encouraging PFS data from the ongoing investigator sponsored trial in collaboration with Columbia University supports expansion of the LPS cohort to inform a potential phase 3 registration-enabling trial-

SAN CARLOS, CA, USA I November 14, 2022 I Apexigen, Inc. (NASDAQ: APGN) a clinical-stage company focused on developing innovative antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer with a focus on immuno-oncology, today announced topline data from an ongoing Phase 2 investigator sponsored trial in collaboration with Columbia University, evaluating sotigalimab, Apexigen’s agonist antibody targeting CD40, in combination with standard of care doxorubicin (dox), in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS). In the subgroup of patients with liposarcoma (LPS), the second most common STS, treatment with sotigalimab combined with dox resulted in a median progression-free survival (mPFS) of 12.45 months relative to the historically observed mPFS of less than 5 months in patients treated with dox monotherapy.

“While the incidence of soft tissue sarcoma continues to rise, efforts to improve upon the standard of care treatment have largely stalled and remained largely unchanged for years,” said Gary Schwartz, M.D., Chief of Columbia University Medical Center’s Division of Hematology and Oncology and Principal Investigator of the study. “In contrast, results from the ongoing Phase 2 trial showed the subgroup of patients with LPS treated with sotigalimab in combination with dox achieved a mPFS more than double than historically seen with dox alone. With the favorable safety observed in these patients, the encouraging results support future evaluation of sotigalimab-based combinations while speaking to the potential of sotigalimab in the maintenance therapy setting.”

Frank Hsu, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Apexigen commented, “In collaboration with Columbia University, we are very pleased to have successfully completed enrollment of the LPS cohort and are encouraged by the promising clinical results to date. This impressive increase in PFS is an improvement of clinical benefit that builds on the standard of care treatment of this disease. We now plan to expand enrollment with an additional 10 patients with LPS. This expansion cohort will supplement the growing dataset suggesting sotigalimab in combination with dox may provide superior clinical benefit compared to emerging treatment approaches and currently approved standard of care chemotherapy. Further, these results could inform a potential Phase 3 registration-enabling study for patients with LPS in the first-line setting.”

The objective of this ongoing study is to evaluate the efficacy of this novel combination and to further characterize the safety and feasibility of the combination of sotigalimab with dox. More information about the study is available here (NCT03719430).

Interim efficacy results:

  • Sotigalimab combined with dox led to encouraging PFS in the completed LPS cohort consisting of dedifferentiated liposarcomas.
    • As of September 27, 2022, of the 10 evaluable patients with LPS, the mPFS was 12.45 months (range: 1.4 to 25.3 months), which compares favorably to the historically observed mPFS of LPS patients treated with dox alone (<5 months).
    • Results support the initiation of an expansion cohort with an additional 10 patients to inform a potential phase 3 registration-enabling trial in first-line LPS patients.

About Apexigen

Apexigen is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing a new generation of antibody therapeutics for oncology, with an emphasis on new immuno-oncology agents designed to harness the patient’s immune system to combat and eradicate cancer. Sotigalimab and Apexigen’s other programs were discovered using Apexigen’s proprietary APXiMAB™ discovery platform. This platform has enabled Apexigen and its collaboration partners to discover and develop therapeutic antibodies against a variety of molecular targets, including targets that are difficult to drug with conventional antibody technologies. Multiple product candidates have been discovered using the APXiMAB platform, one of which is commercially available and the others are in clinical development, either internally by Apexigen or by its licensees. For more information, please visit www.apexigen.com.

SOURCE: Apexigen