ADC Therapeutics and Freenome enter biomarker development collaboration

ADC Therapeutics is currently evaluating ADCT-402 in a pivotal Phase II clinical trial in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Freenome’s platform will characterize tumor heterogeneity and systemic immune response to identify signatures from blood of DLBCL patients participating in ADC Therapeutics’ pivotal Phase II clinical trial. The multiomics approach will allow ADC Therapeutics to consider a broad range of DNA, RNA and protein markers in developing a biomarker signature.

“Our partnership with ADC Therapeutics validates our unique multiomics platform and its potential to help biopharmaceutical companies develop innovative cancer therapies for patients in need,” said Gabe Otte, Chief Executive Officer of Freenome. “Our platform can help biopharma partners refine biomarker development and potentially de-risk and accelerate drug development by characterizing patients likely to respond to therapy. In addition, given that ADCT-402 is targeting a hematological malignancy, this partnership highlights the potential of our platform to provide tumor and immune signatures for hematological cancers in addition to solid tumors. Combined with the ongoing development of our early cancer screening test, we are moving closer to our goal of helping physicians and patients navigate precision health by identifying cancer at its earliest stages when treatments can be most effective.”

“We are excited to leverage Freenome’s unique platform to potentially enhance our identification and understanding of the patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment with ADCT-402, which has been demonstrating significant single-agent clinical activity in a broad population of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in our pivotal Phase II clinical trial,” said Patrick van Berkel, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at ADC Therapeutics. “This partnership adds to our ongoing biomarker research efforts, which we believe will be advantageous as we continue to advance the clinical development of ADCT-402.”

Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Freenome’s multiomics platform detects key biological signals from a routine blood draw. The platform integrates assays for cell-free DNA, methylation, and proteins with advanced computational biology and machine learning techniques to identify additive signatures that improve the accuracy for early cancer detection given the molecular subtypes of cancer are heterogeneous in nature.

This strategy incorporates a multidimensional view of both tumor- and immune-derived signatures that enables the early detection of cancer, instead of relying only on tumor-derived markers, which may miss the early signs of cancer. Freenome’s first cancer test is for the screening of colorectal cancer, the second deadliest form of cancer in the U.S. When identified early, colorectal cancer has a 90 percent five-year relative survival rate compared to 14 percent when detected at a more advanced stage according to data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.

Source: Company Press Release