HLB said Friday that the first global clinical phase 3 results of its liver cancer drug, rivoceranib, and camrelizumab, will be presented orally at the proffered paper session of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) on Sept. 10.
Proffered papers are verbally presented in front of experts attending ESMO, such as clinicians and multinational pharmaceutical companies, and are subject to discussions.
The clinical results of Merck's keytruda and lenvima combination, which recently failed to prove validity as a primary treatment for liver cancer, will be announced first.
Subsequently, the combined clinical results of camrelizumab and rivoceranib in the successful phase 3 clinical trials are likely to draw the pharmaceutical industry's attention in anticipation of the development of new liver cancer therapeutics. Both drugs underwent clinical trials in the U.S. and China.
Following them will be Novartis’ phase 3 data on tislelizumab, which has a low chance of obtaining FDA approval as a new drug.
Thus, the combined treatment of rivoceranib will likely emerge as the only drug that has demonstrated superiority over conventional therapeutics.
The keytruda combination and riboceranib combination are both immuno-cancer drugs that inhibit neovascularization. As a result, they received great attention from academia as potential competing drugs to replace the combination of Avastin and thycentric.
After some blockbuster anticancer drugs, including opdivo, cabozantinib, and thycentric, failed in the clinical trials of the primary treatment for liver cancer, expectations are high for the full data release of the combination of camrelizumab and rivoceranib at ESMO this year, according to HLB.
The combined clinical trial of rivoceranib has already shown superiority to the control group nexava, drawing attention to whether it can demonstrate improved overall survival (OS) results over the Avastin combination.
Meanwhile, HLB has also completed the pre-NDA process with the U.S. FDA to obtain approval for rivoceranib as the primary treatment for liver cancer. In addition, Eleva and HLB Life Sciences, both of which hold sales rights, and HLB Pharmaceutical, responsible for production, signed a business agreement with one another for rapid commercialization.