Inhibrx's OX40 Agonist Combo Therapy Beats Keytruda Alone in Head and Neck Cancer
Inhibrx's OX40 agonist add-on therapy INBRX-106 has shown promise in treating head and neck cancer. The company announced positive results from a Phase 2 trial, where patients who took INBRX-106 in combination with Merck's Keytruda had a confirmed objective response rate (ORR) of 48.3%, compared to 26.5% for those taking only Keytruda.
The interim analysis comes from 68 total patients across the treatment and comparator arms, as of August 19. INBRX-106 is a hexavalent OX40 agonist that engages six receptors at once, according to CEO Mark Lappe. He explained that the current treatments using bivalent antibodies do not bring together enough OX40 receptors to effectively activate T cells.
Lappe said the company's therapy is designed to 'step on the accelerator' of the immune response, while Keytruda releases the brake. The OX40 agonist showed a higher rate of treatment-emergent adverse events in the combo treatment group, but these were mostly low-grade and did not lead to any clear pattern.