Avacta Therapeutics announced Phase 1 data from its lead program FAP-Dox (AVA6000), that were presented alongside preclinical pharmacokinetic results from its second pre|CISION®? candidate AVA6103 (FAP-EXd) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Both programs are designed to target fibroblast activation protein-alpha (FAPa), the protease that forms the basis of the pre|CISION®?
platform. Avacta's proprietary pre|CISION®? chemistry leverages this tumor-specific biology to activate potent drugs selectively at the tumor site, enhancing efficacy while minimizing systemic toxicity.
Median progression-free survival (PFS) has not yet been reached, with median follow-up exceeding 25 weeks (25.3 weeks, 5.9 months). These FAP-Dox PFS results compare favorably to recent benchmarking data in this patient population presented at ESMO 2024, with a reported PFS of 3.5 months (15 weeks) in a large cohort (n=54) in a similar setting of pretreated patients with SGC (Licitra et al. ESMO 2024).
Despite dosing up to 4x the dose of conventional doxorubicin, the exposure of released doxorubicin in plasma and normal tissues is lower than that observed with conventional dose doxorubicin (75 mg/m2 Q3W) and the median tumor to plasma ratio is 100:1. Avacta continues to enroll patients in three Phase 1b expansion cohorts in salivary gland cancer, triple negative breast cancer and high-grade soft tissue sarcoma with data anticipated by the end of 2025.
