LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Hutchison China MediTech, doing business as Chi-Med, has entered into four collaboration agreements to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of its 'surufatinib' (HMPL-012 or sulfatinib) and 'fruquintinib' products, in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.
The AIM-traded firm said it was an important part of its strategy to explore the potential synergies of its drug candidates, in combination with other anticancer treatments.

It said the four new immunotherapy collaborations added to its ongoing studies combining 'savolitinib', its "highly selective" c-Met inhibitor, with AstraZeneca's checkpoint inhibitor, 'durvalumab' (Imfinzi).

On Thursday, Chi-Med confirmed the first steps to develop its vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitors, surufatinib and fruquintinib, in combination with various programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibodies in several solid tumor settings.

Those included a global collaboration to evaluate the combination of surufatinib with toripalimab (JS001), a PD-1 monoclonal antibody being developed by Shanghai Junshi Biosciences; a global collaboration to evaluate the combination of fruquintinib with sintilimab (IBI308), a PD-1 monoclonal antibody being developed by Innovent Biologics Suzhou; a collaboration in China to evaluate the combination of surufatinib with HX008, a PD-1 monoclonal antibody being developed by Taizhou Hanzhong Pharmaceuticals; and a collaboration in China to evaluate the combination of fruquintinib with genolimzumab (GB226), a PD-1 monoclonal antibody being developed by Genor Biopharma.

Chi-Med said the global market for angiogenesis inhibitors was more than $18bn in 2017, based on their use in around 30 different tumour settings.

Each of the agreements announced would pursue different initial indications within the field of solid tumours, the board confirmed.

"Recent innovations in solid tumor drugs have focused on targeted therapies and immunotherapies which, as monotherapies, have both provided improved patients outcomes," said Chi-Med chief executive Christian Hogg.

"We believe that the future of oncology treatments increasingly lies in combining therapies, utilizing multiple mechanisms of action to confront tumors.

"Our unique next-generation anti-angiogenesis VEGFR inhibitors, with high selectivity and tolerability, make them ideal candidates for such combinations with immunotherapy agents such as PD-1/L1 monoclonal antibodies to prolong and expand the benefits of these therapies to more patients."

Chi-Med said its proof-of-concept studies had already demonstrated the benefits of combinations with other kinase inhibitors or with chemotherapy.

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