Erytech tanks as Phase III eryaspase trial in advanced pancreatic cancer fails

Following the announcement that its Phase III TRYbeCA-1 clinical trials of eryaspase in 512 second-line patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer failed to meet its primary endpoint, shares of Lyon, France-based biotech firm Erytech Pharma (Nasdaq: ERYP) plummeted as much as 40%.

In the TRYbeCA-1 trial, eryaspase demonstrated an improvement in the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) compared to chemotherapy alone with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.92 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.76-1.11) in the intent-to-treat population, and the difference was not statistically significant (p-value 0.375). The median OS for patients treated with eryaspase plus chemotherapy was 7.5 months (95% CI, 6.5-8.3), compared to 6.7 months (95% CI, 5.4-7.5) for chemotherapy alone.

Interestingly, while the patients treated with gemcitabine plus nabpaclitaxel did not experience a survival benefit from the addition of eryaspase, patients treated with eryaspase and an irinotecan-based chemotherapy regimen showed nominal survival benefit with a HR of 0.77 (95% CI, 5.7-1.05) over those treated with chemotherapy alone. This prespecified subgroup had a median OS of 8.0 months in the eryaspase-treated arm versus 5.7 months in the control arm (per protocol population).