Biotechnology company Hummingbird Bioscience has begun two Phase Ib clinical trials of HMBD-001 in Australia.
The trials are enrolling squamous non-small cell lung carcinoma (sqNSCLC) patients and those with genetic aberrations in HER3 signalling.
They are sponsored by Hummingbird Bioscience and aim to assess HMBD-001’s activity in these patients.
HMBD-001 is an antibody that acts on HER3 and is believed to hinder HER3 oncogenic signalling.
Hummingbird Bioscience claims to have detected genetic signatures that could predict response to the antibody.
To enrol subjects with these profiles, the company has partnered with Omico, a national network supported by the Australian government.
As part of the partnership, Hummingbird will use Omico's PrOSPeCT platform and network to enrol eligible participants with gene signatures that could benefit from the treatment with HMBD-001.
The PrOSPeCT programme will allow patients to be referred to the trials analysing HMBD-001.
GenesisCare is acting as the lead site for the trials.
Hummingbird Bioscience chief scientific officer Jerome Boyd-Kirkup said: “We are excited to announce the initiation of our HMBD-001 Phase Ib trials in Australia.
“We have invested significant resources in understanding how to identify cancers that depend on HER3 signalling for growth.
“Omico’s PrOSPeCT platform has created an extensive network enabling accelerated access to genomic screening, which allows us to quickly identify and recruit patients that we believe will benefit from HMBD-001.”
Active in Singapore and the US, Hummingbird aims to discover and develop 'transformative' biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases.
In addition to HMBD-001, the company is also developing HMBD-002, a humanised anti-VISTA IgG4 monoclonal antibody currently in Phase I studies.
In May this year, Hummingbird collaborated with Merck to analyse HMBD-001 in combination with cetuximab for sqNSCLC.
The companies agreed to launch a Phase Ib trial to evaluate HMBD-001’s safety, tolerability and anti-tumour activity combined with standard-of-care chemotherapy with or without cetuximab in sqNSCLC patients.
