EQS-News

Fortress Bio’s Portfolio Of Marketed Drugs Could Soon See Three Additions

EQS-News: Fortress Biotech, Inc. Fortress Bio’s Portfolio Of Marketed Drugs Could Soon See Three Additions 06.10.2022 / 14:00 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Fortress Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: FBIO) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing a range of high-potential treatments on its own and through its growing portfolio of subsidiaries and partner companies.

With nine products already on the market and more than 30 programs in development, the biopharmaceutical company helps deliver innovative drug therapies to patients who have a wide range of diseases and disorders. Here are three of the most significant breakthrough developments it achieved this year.

Checkpoint’s Cancer Immunotherapy Aims To Add Second Treatment Indication

Checkpoint Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CKPT) announced positive interim results in June from a registration-enabling clinical trial of its anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor.

The novel cancer immunotherapy is being studied as a possible treatment for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), a difficult-to-treat skin cancer. The current first-line treatment for cSCC is surgery to remove the tumor or radiation therapy to destroy the tumor. However, some patients aren’t candidates for surgery or radiation, either because of poor health or because cancer has spread or become too advanced.

Cosibelimab is an immunotherapy drug that works by blocking the PD-L1 inhibitor, an immune checkpoint inhibitor on the surface of cells that tells the body’s immune system not to attack that particular cell. Cancer uses those same checkpoint inhibitors to trick the immune system into believing the cancerous cell is a normal healthy cell that it should not attack.

By blocking PD-L1, cosibelimab can remove cancer’s ability to escape detection and allow the patient’s own immune system to better identify and attack cancerous cells. In the registration-enabling clinical trial, cosibelimab achieved a response rate of 54.8% — far exceeding the minimum 25% target.

Checkpoint plans to discuss the potential of adding locally advanced cSCC as a second indication in addition to metastatic cSCC with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as it prepares its biologics license application for submission around year-end. Checkpoint provides a 4.5% royalty on net sales and a 2.5% annual equity dividend to Fortress Bio in exchange for its operational, strategic, administrative, financial, and legal support.