New Research for Immunotherapy Combinations with Paclitaxel Helping in Breast Cancer Fight

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- USA News Group – Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center have found a potential new combination therapy for breast cancer that would integrate the body's immune system with targeted treatment for a protein that advances cancer. The UC study came on the heels of other announcements involving combination therapies, in particular with established chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, produced by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). Recent combination studies with paclitaxel have come from developers such as Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC), Athenex, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNX), Merck KGaA (OTCPK: MKKGY), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).

Paclitaxel's importance is understood around the world. Even the World Health Organization has it published on its Model List of Essential Medicines. However, the drug's efficacy may be greatly improved through its combination with other platforms.

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC) recently announced that the first patient was dosed in the company's Phase 2 study of a combination therapy to treat HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer (mBC). The therapy involves a combination of the company's proprietary pelareorep in combination with paclitaxel alone, and with paclitaxel and Bavencio from Merck KGaA (OTC: MKKGY)— which operates its biopharmaceutical business in the US and Canada as EMD Serono—and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).

The study, known as BRACELET-1 is being conducted under a co-development agreement between all three companies.

This latest randomized BRACELET-1 study was designed to support the results of a prior successful Phase 2 trial that showed a near doubling of overall survival with pelareorep treatment.

Oncolytics Biotech's pelareorep success came from its ability to induce a robust anti-tumor immune response in an identical patient population (patients with HR+/HER2- mBC). The ability of pelareorep-induced immune responses to enhance anti- PD-L1 therapy will also be evaluated through the inclusion of the paclitaxel-pelareorep-avelumab combination therapy cohort.

Athenex, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNX) has also worked to improve upon Taxol—the brand name given to paclitaxel by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY).