InnoCare Pharma and ArriVent Biopharma have entered a clinical development collaboration agreement to assess the combination therapy of ICP-189 and furmonertinib for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a clinical study.

Under the agreement, both companies will together conduct the study.

The study will evaluate the safety and anti-tumour activity of InnoCare’s ICP-189 along with ArriVent’s furmonertinib in advanced NSCLC patients.

InnoCare co-founder, chairwoman and CEO Dr Jasmine Cui said: “NSCLC is the major subtype of lung cancer with huge unmet medical needs.

“We are glad to work with ArriVent to push forward the combination study and expect this innovative therapy to benefit global patients early.”

ICP-189 demonstrated favourable pharmacokinetic (PK), long half-life, safety, and tolerability in a dose escalation study, as a single agent or combined with other anticancer therapies.

ArriVent chairman, co-founder and CEO Bing Yao said: “Combining furmonertinib with ICP-189 represents the growing opportunity for our furmonertinib clinical development programme, in addition to ongoing studies in the monotherapy setting.

“If successful in clinical trials and approved, the combination of furmonertinib with Src Homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase (SHP2) inhibitors could be another potential treatment option to help improve the lives of people living with advanced or metastatic lung cancer.”

Furmonertinib received approval in China as a first-line treatment in adults with advanced or metastatic NSCLC with EGFR exon 19 deletion (19DEL) or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations.

It is further being developed in collaboration with Allist Pharmaceuticals for treating other indications.

Allist discovered furmonertinib, a highly brain-penetrant, broadly active mutation-selective epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor.