US-based biopharmaceutical company Phanes Therapeutics has announced a clinical supply agreement with Roche for a combination therapy study.

The collaboration will focus on evaluating PT217, Phanes' first-in-class bispecific antibody, in combination with Roche's atezolizumab, an anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy.

The study aims to treat various forms of neuroendocrine carcinomas and small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

It will assess the efficacy of PT217 combined with atezolizumab in treating large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung (LCNEC), and extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas (EP-NECs).

Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast-track designation to PT217 for treating patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) with disease progression following platinum chemotherapy.

Phanes is currently enrolling subjects in the multi-centre Phase I SKYBRIDGE study. It aims to assess the safety, preliminary efficacy, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of PT217 in advanced or refractory cancers expressing delta-like canonical Notch ligand 3 (DLL3).

The study’s next phase will investigate the antibody as a combination therapy in SCLC, LCNEC and EP-NECs.

The latest collaboration will assess PT217 in combination with atezolizumab in these patients.

Phanes chief medical officer Rita Laeufle said: “Phanes is very excited about partnering with Roche on this novel approach to treat patients with SCLC, LCNEC and EP-NECs.

“DLL3 is highly expressed in SCLC, LCNEC and EP-NECs and is an important target for treating these cancers. We believe the mechanisms of PT217 and atezolizumab are complementary and the combination has the potential to improve outcomes for patients. This collaboration marks another milestone for Phanes in fulfilling our vision of developing innovative approaches to treat cancer.”

Last year, Phanes signed a clinical collaboration agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside North America, to evaluate PT886 in combination with Keytruda.