Secrecy surrounds one of Roche’s latest phase 1 entrants, a molecule coded RO7851624 that’s just started a first-in-human study in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, as revealed in the latest listings on the clinicaltrials.gov registry.
Roche has revealed nothing about either the target or modality of this project, but the company is known to be working on novel antigens in multiple myeloma, including on GPRC5D with forimtamig, and on FcRH5 with cevostamab, which has just gone into phase 3. One possibility is that RO7851624 is a different name for a molecule earlier coded RG6735.
That wouldn’t be unusual for Roche, which frequently gives multiple codes to the same project; cevostamab, for instance, was known both as RO7187797 and as RG6160, before its INN was issued.
RG6735 first appeared in Roche’s pipeline last month, and was said to be a new molecular entity whose first-in-human study in haematological tumours would enrol its first patient in the second quarter. Still, none of this helps to identify the action of either project, as the mechanism of RG6735 hasn’t publicly been disclosed either.
Three other recent first-in-human trial entrants also have undisclosed mechanisms of action: Jiangsu HengRui’s HRS-3005, Qilu’s QLS1317 and Brii Biosciences’ BRII-5395. None of their new clinicaltrials.gov entries give any clues for now.
Meanwhile, Innovent continues putting to use the $1.2bn windfall it got through a licensing deal with Takeda, taking another new molecular entity, IBI115, into human trials in small-cell lung cancer. IBI115 is an anti-DLL3 T-cell engager, a modality it shares with 21 other industry projects, according to OncologyPipeline, including Amgen’s marketed Imdelltra.
Recently disclosed first-in-human studies*
