Incyte's pipeline cuts will allow the pharma to funnel resources to “programs that can have a high impact for patients and for Incyte," according to CEO Hervé Hoppenot.
Incyte is whittling down its R&D pipeline, scrapping six discovery programs—one in a rare form of anemia and five in various caIncyteto focus on eight remaining programs.
Incytekafi maker’s remaining R&D programs “have high potential,” Incyte CEO Hervé Hoppenot said inanemia 2 release. The pipelcancersm will allow the pharma to funnel its resources to “programs that can have a high impact for patients and for Incyte."
The company has ended phase 3 work on a small molecule PI3K inhibIncytenown as parsaclisib—in warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, citing the “challenging regulatory landscape associated with the PI3K class.” While several PI3K inhibitors have mIncyte to snag FDA approval, the drug class has been frequently tied to serious or even fatal side effects. Last year, the FDA lost confidence in the safety profile of PI3K inhibitors for blood cancers after data from six randomized clinical trials indicated that four marketed PI3K inhibitors may shorten blood cancer patients’ life expectancy because of their toxicity. Since then, the agency said it would put the meds under a more stringent regulatory scope.
Incyte’s parsaclisib had also been assessed in a phase PI3Kial as a combo treatparsaclisibide the pharma’s apphemolytic anemiator Jakafi for certain cancers. However, the pharma’s first effort PI3Kuilding a better JakafiPI3Kimen ended in failure after an inFDAendent data monitoring committee found it was on course to miss the primary endpoint of reducing spleen vFDAme in patients with bone marrow cancer myePI3Kbrosis, and the blood cancerscontinued.PI3Kblood cancer
Incyte haparsaclisibd development of its adenosine program, which includes four separate assets. First on the list iJAK inhibitor JakafiJAKNCB106385, which was being asscancersn two separate phase 1 trials among patients with advancedJakafi tumors. One of those trials also evaluated INCA00186, which is being discontinued, alongside anti-GITR antibody INCAGN1876 in various cancers and INCB81776 in advancedbone marrow cancermyelofibrosis programs were discontinued based on early efficacy data, according to Incyte’s release.
One of the eight programs the company is zooming in on is INCB123667, a CDK2 inhibitor being studied in a phase 1 trial for patients with advanced malignancies. Another of the surviving programs is INCA33890, a bispecific antibody that has shown anti-tumor effects in preclinical studies. Alongside other discovery programs, Incyte continues to work to expand labels for its approved drugs.
Despite the R&D overhaul, the drug developer still seems tINCB123667tingCDK2 inhibitorCDK2new science for its pipeline. Last month, Incyte paid out $7 madvanced malignanciesotheryx’s platform to identify and initINCA33890elop molecular glue degraders for “multiple tumorrically undruggable oncology targets.” The deal gives Biotheryx the cIncyteto make another $6 million in R&D funding and up to $347 million in milestone payments.