iOnctura to Present Preclinical Data on its Clinical Stage Autotaxin Inhibitor, IOA-289, at AACR

GENEVA, March 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — iOnctura SA, a clinical-stage oncology company targeting core resistance and relapse mechanisms at the tumor-stroma-immune interface, will present preclinical data on its next-generation autotaxin inhibitor, IOA-289, at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) taking place on April 8-13, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Autotaxin is a secreted glycoprotein that hydrolyzes Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) to Lysophosphatidic Acid (LPA). LPA has a direct effect on tumor cell growth and survival. It also modulates the tumor microenvironment at the level of immune and stromal cells, including Cancer Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs), enabling tumors to evade host immunity and impairing the response to therapy. iOnctura is developing IOA-289 as a novel therapy for oncology indications where the response to chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy is sub-optimal due to the presence of an immunosuppressive fibrotic microenvironment.

IOA-289 has been evaluated in healthy volunteers as a lead-in to a Phase I clinical study in pancreatic cancer.

The poster presentation (#2992) at AACR is entitled “Targeting Autotaxin to Suppress Stromal Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment to Improve Outcome to Therapy in Fibrotic Tumor Types.” The poster will be presented on Tuesday Apr 12, 2022 between 9:00 AM and 12:30 PM in New Orleans Convention Center, Exhibit Halls D-H, Poster Section 24. The abstract will also be published in the online Proceedings of the AACR.

Contacts

iOnctura SA is clinical stage oncology company targeting core resistance and relapse mechanisms at the tumor-stroma-immune interface. iOnctura’s best-in-class drug development programs combine immune-mediated and direct anti-tumor activity to deliver molecules with superior clinical efficacy and safety in oncology. Its lead program, IOA-244 is the only semi-allosteric PI3Kδ specific, orally dosed, small molecule inhibitor that is being developed in solid and hematological malignancies to address tumor and stroma induced immune suppression. IOA-244 is currently in Part B of a Phase 1 study. iOnctura’s second program, IOA-289, is an oral small molecule that inhibits the cross-talk between the tumor and its stroma and is in a Phase 1 clinical study. iOnctura is backed by blue chip investors including M Ventures, Inkef Capital, VI Partners, Schroders Capital, and 3B Future Health Fund. For more information, please visit iOnctura’s website.

IOA-289, originally licensed from Cancer Research UK, is a next generation oral small molecule autotaxin inhibitor that has been investigated in healthy volunteers in study AION 01 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05027568). A phase 1 clinical study in pancreatic cancer patients is in preparation. iOnctura has undertaken extensive validation of the autotaxin inhibition mechanism in multiple solid tumor preclinical models.

Pancreatic cancer (PDAC): Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer accounting for approximately 90% of cases. PDAC has a poor prognosis, with less than 5% of patients surviving beyond five years after diagnosis. There are over 50,000 diagnoses of pancreatic cancer each year in the United States and over 65,000 in the EU5.