For the second quarter in a row, Incyte has used its earnings results to significantly slim down its early-stage pipeline as the Jakafi-maker channels its resources toward “high potential impact programs.”
The latest list of discontinued assets includes both of Incyte’s oral, small-molecule PD-L1 inhibitors that were being assessed in phase 1 trials. One of these, INCB99280, was being evaluated in an early-stage solid tumor trial, and the biotech had already set out plans for a phase 1/1b trial in KRASG12C-mutated solid tumors in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb’s Krazati.
The other scrapped PD-L1 inhibitor, dubbed INCB99318, was also in a phase 1 solid tumor trial.
Also on the chopping block are a couple of LAG3 drug candidates. One of these is a LAG-3 monoclonal antibody dubbed INCAGN2385 that was being developed with Agenus. The other was a bispecific anti–PD1 and anti–LAG-3 antibody dubbed INCA32459 that was being developed with Merus and had undergone a phase 1 study in select advanced malignancies.
Finally, Incyte has removed a TIM-3 monoclonal antibody dubbed INCAGN2390, which was another product of the Merus collaboration. INCAGN2390 was designed to “potently block TIM-3 to reinvigorate T and NK cells and reduce immunosuppression by regulatory T cells (Tregs),” according to Agenus’ website.
Incyte said the changes, unveiled this morning in the company’s second-quarter earnings results, were part of a “strategic review of its pipeline with an increased focus on high potential impact programs.”
“In R&D, we completed a strategic review of our pipeline and have further intensified our focus on clinical programs that we believe can be transformational for patients,” CEO Hervé Hoppenot explained in the release.
Among the company’s highest priority candidates are povorcitinib, a selective oral JAK1 inhibitor that has already demonstrated its worth in phase 2 trials in both hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo so far this year. The company has also imported over a pair of budding immunology and inflammation candidates as part of its $750 million acquisition of Escient Pharmaceuticals in April.
Despite today’s pipeline changes, oncology remains another key area of focus for Incyte, which will continue to channel resources into NCB123667—a CDK2-selective small molecule inhibitor in a phase 1 solid tumor trial—among others.
The company’s third priority area is myeloproliferative neoplasms and graft-versus-host disease, where the biotech singled out three candidates.
This morning’s pipeline changes follow a similar strategy to Incyte’s previous quarterly earnings back in May, when the biotech scrapped six drugs—one in a rare form of anemia and five in various cancers.