BERLIN (Reuters) – Swiss drug maker Roche said on Wednesday it had been made aware of an inadvertent disclosure in a study of its new immunotherapy for patients with lung cancer using an experimental class of drugs known as anti-TIGIT.
The disclosure regards the second interim analysis of Phase III in the Skyscraper 1 study. This evaluated a combination of tiragolumab and Roche’s established Tecentriq drug versus Tecentriq alone, a company statement said.
“The interim results for the primary endpoint of overall survival were not mature at the time of the second interim analysis,” the statement said, adding that it would continue the study until it had made a final analysis of overall survival.
Tiragolumab works by selectively binding itself to TIGIT, a receptor found on immune system cells that normally serves to prevent an immune attack against healthy cells.
Some cancers have developed a mechanism that exploits TIGIT to continue to grow unnoticed by cell-killing immune cells, prompting intense research into using anti-TIGITs in combination with other cancer drugs.
Last year, Roche’s new treatment was thrown into doubt when a study showed a combination of tiragolumab and Tecentriq did not slow disease progression.
(Writing by Rachel More; editing by Jason Neely)
