Seattle Genetics & Astellas Report Positive Urothelial Cancer Study

Seattle Genetics and Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma announced positive topline data from the first cohort of its Phase II EV-201 trial. The trial is evaluating enfortumab vedotin in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who had previously received both platinum-based chemotherapy and a checkpoint inhibitor. Enfortumab vedotin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting Nectin-4. Nectin-4 is highly expressed in urothelial cancers, as well as other solid tumors. The drug received Breakthrough Therapy designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on results from a Phase I (EV-101) clinical trial. An ADC is a class of therapeutics where a cancer drug is attached to a specific antibody using a biodegradable linker molecule. The idea is to decrease the effects of chemotherapy on healthy cells while maximizing the cancer cells’ death. In other words, it’s a way of delivering chemotherapy directly to the cancer cells instead of systemically.