KAHR Medical collaborates with Roche on DSP107

Privately-held Israeli biotechnology company KAHR Medical today announced a new clinical collaboration with Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX).

The collaboration will explore KAHR's lead program, DSP107, a SIRPα-41BBL DSP, in combination with Roche's PD-L1-blocking checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) Tecentriq (atezolizumab) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are refractory to checkpoint inhibitors. KAHR expects to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food Drug Administration and begin a Phase I/II trial in the first half of 2020 to evaluate DSP107 as a monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab.

"We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Roche to study the potential of atezolizumab in combination with DSP107, our lead drug candidate," said Yaron Pereg, chief executive of KAHR Medical, adding: "The combined approach of DSP107 alongside immune-checkpoint inhibition has already shown promise in preclinical studies. We look forward to examining the potential of DSP107 with atezolizumab in treating NSCLC patients with limited treatment options."