argenx said today it has ended its 2-year-old collaboration with The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) to develop the drug developer’s lead oncology candidate ARGX-110 for refractory Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM).

The termination followed argenx’s decision not to study ARGX-110 in the rare blood cancer, the company said yesterday in its announcement of second-quarter and first-half 2016 results.

Under their collaboration agreement signed in 2014, argenx and LLS agreed to contribute a combined $4.5 million toward a Phase II study of ARGX-110 in WM. LLS funding was to come through its Therapy Acceleration Program, an initiative to speed the development of therapies that have the potential to change the standard of care for patients with hematological cancers.

argenx said it will continue developing ARGX-110 for T-cell leukemia (TCL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). ARGX-110 is a first-in-class SIMPLE Antibody™ with broad therapeutic potential across a range of cancers (blood and solid tumors) and severe autoimmune diseases.

At the European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Congress, held in Copenhagen June 9–12, argenx presented data showing positive clinical and/or biological antitumor activity for ARGX-110 in patients with highly refractory cutaneous TCL (CTCL), as well as peripheral TCL (PTCL) patients with confirmed overexpression of CD70.

The company has a Phase Ib safety expansion cohort study ongoing in patients with relapsed/refractory TCL, with 14 CTCL and PTCL patients enrolled. Topline data from the expansion cohort will be presented by year’s end, argenx said.

On September 22, the company plans to report interim data from the study and present its combination study trial design at argenx R&D Day: Developing Antibodies of Choice for Severe Auto-Immune Diseases and Oncology, to be held New York.

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