YM Bioscience’s cancer drug cleared for extra Europe trials

German specialty pharmaceutical company Oncoscience is YM Bioscience’s European partner for the development of nimotuzumab, a humanized EGFR-targeting monoclonal antibody.

In the first study, nimotuzumab and the current standard of care (radiotherapy with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide) will be compared to the current standard of care in patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the most common type of brain tumor. In the second of the studies, chemotherapy-naive patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer who will be treated with either gemcitabine plus nimotuzumab or gemcitabine plus placebo.

Primary endpoints for the trials include progression free survival and time to tumor progression, respectively. Canada-based YM BioSciences anticipates that it will extend the European trial in pancreatic cancer into Canada by submitting the protocol to Canadian health regulatory authorities and adding Canadian sites to accelerate recruitment.

David Allan, chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences, said: “The proposed co-operation between YM and Oncoscience in extending the trial into Canada with a common protocol parallels the structure that is already in place for a trial in non-small-cell lung cancer which YM is conducting in Canada and Kuhnil Pharmaceutical Co, is conducting in Korea with a common protocol. The cooperation in these trials is designed to accelerate recruitment and lower the costs to the participants.”