PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UroGen Pharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: URGN), a biotech company dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative solutions that treat urothelial and specialty cancers, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared UroGen’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application to begin a novel Phase 1 clinical study of the anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy UGN-301 (zalifrelimab) in patients with recurrent NMIBC. The multi-arm Phase 1 study is expected to start in April and support the development of UGN-301 in high-grade (HG) NMIBC.
UroGen’s pursuit to harness the power of the immune system to fight cancer begins with UGN-301, which UroGen views as a potential cornerstone of a variety of combination therapies targeting recurrent NMIBC and high-grade cancers. UroGen initially plans to combine UGN-301 with UGN-201, the Company’s proprietary formulation of imiquimod a toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist, which has demonstrated single-agent activity in high-risk bladder cancer patients.
The novel study design will utilize a Master Protocol that UroGen believes is a more efficient and streamlined approach to development. It will provide more flexibility to add study arms as the trial progresses and increase efficiency and reduces costs. UroGen expects the Master Protocol will allow the Company to more quickly evaluate safety, tolerability and dosing of UGN-301 in combination with additional immunomodulators and chemotherapies, with the goal of developing optimized medicines for patients.
“We are pleased that our IND application was cleared to proceed, and we can begin to explore our innovative approach to meeting the high unmet needs in bladder cancer, especially for patients with high-grade disease,” says Mark Schoenberg, Chief Medical Officer, UroGen Pharma. “Intravesical delivery of combination therapies is unique with the goal of improving efficacy while avoiding the toxicities associated with systemic treatment of immunotherapies. Our proprietary technology enables local delivery of treatments, which provide opportunities to pursue several promising drug combinations.”
Unmet Needs in Bladder Cancer
Bladder cancers are described as muscle invasive or non-muscle invasive based on whether they have invaded the wall of the bladder. HG NMIBC is associated with an increased risk of recurrence and progression. Approximately 25,000 people are diagnosed with HG NMIBC annually. Transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) followed by intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is currently the standard of care for treatment of HG NMIBC.
HG NMIBC patient response to BCG therapy has long been interpreted as evidence that bladder cancer is sensitive to immunotherapy. Unfortunately, many patients with HG disease do not respond to BCG or relapse following therapy. In these cases, patients have limited therapeutic options and often proceed to bladder removal as a means of forestalling disease progression which has a significant association with cancer specific mortality. UroGen’s proprietary RTGel™ technology provides a novel method for delivering alternatives to BCG including immunomodulatory molecules such as UGN-301 as well as chemotherapeutic agents and other drugs with diverse molecular characteristics and sizes.
About UroGen Pharma Ltd.
UroGen is a biotech company dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative solutions that treat urothelial and specialty cancers, because patients deserve better options. UroGen has developed RTGel™ reverse-thermal hydrogel, a proprietary sustained release, hydrogel-based technology that has the potential to improve therapeutic profiles of existing drugs. UroGen’s sustained release technology is designed to enable longer exposure of the urinary tract tissue to medications, making local therapy a potentially more effective treatment option. UroGen’s first commercial product, and its investigational treatment, UGN-102 (mitomycin) for intravesical solution in development for patients with low-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, are designed to ablate tumors by non-surgical means. UroGen is headquartered in Princeton, NJ with operations in Israel. Visit www.urogen.com to learn more or follow us on Twitter, @UroGenPharma.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements regarding: the planned Phase 1 study of UGN-301 (zalifrelimab) intravesical solution and the design and timing thereof; the potential benefits of the intravesical delivery of UGN-301 using our RTGel™ proprietary technology; UroGen’s development plans for UGN-301, including in combination with other investigational agents; the Phase 1 study supporting the development of UGN-301 in HG NMIBC; UGN-301 being a cornerstone of a variety of combination therapies targeting recurrent NMIBC and high-grade cancers; UroGen’s ability to evaluate, in the UGN-301 Phase 1 study, UGN-301 in combination with additional immunomodulators and chemotherapies, with the goal of developing optimized medicines; and the design and potential benefits of RTGel™ and UroGen’s sustained release technology. These statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to: results from nonclinical studies are not necessarily indicative of results that may be observed in clinical trials; clinical trial site initiation and enrollment challenges that may impact the expected timing of our planned clinical trials, including challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the timing and success of clinical trials and potential safety and other complications thereof; UroGen’s ability to attract or retain key management, members of the board of directors and personnel; and any negative effects on UroGen’s business, commercialization and product development plans caused by or associated with COVID-19 or geopolitical issues. In light of these risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that are described in the Risk Factors section of UroGen’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 21, 2022 and other filings that UroGen makes with the SEC from time to time (which are available at http://www.sec.gov), the events and circumstances discussed in such forward-looking statements may not occur, and UroGen’s actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied thereby. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on information available to UroGen as of the date of this release.
